


The Elephant in the Room

by AkinoAme, drunkenpandaren



Category: Kamen Rider Den-O, Kamen Rider OOO, Kamen Rider Ryuki, Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters
Genre: Background Relationships, Drinking, Gen, OOO Wonderful, Post-Super Hero Taisen, Time-trippin' ride
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-07
Updated: 2013-10-11
Packaged: 2017-12-10 15:29:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 31,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkinoAme/pseuds/AkinoAme, https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunkenpandaren/pseuds/drunkenpandaren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jin put on his best innocent expression. "Kurorin, is this all I mean to you? All those years of friendship? There's an elephant in the room, and it's automatically my fault—how can you think like that?"</p><p>"Because it usually IS."</p><p>It all started when Ryuki, OOO, and Den-O were fighting Odin...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Long Story

"Jin."

Kuroki had to force himself not to bellow his friend's name, and he only barely kept his temper. It didn't help one bit that Jin strolled in, hardly looking uncomfortable as he made his way past the massive obstruction in the middle of the room, gave a cocky salute, and called out, "Yo, Kurorin."

" _Jin_ ," he growled. "What is THAT?"

Almost lazily, Jin looked over his shoulder. "What's what?"

"THAT," Kuroki said, pointing right behind him.

Jin smirked. "It's an elephant in the room. What else would it be?"

Kuroki took a breath, held it for a moment, and reminded himself that strangling Jin would do nothing. The avatar could always re-form. And if it DID do anything, it would be bad for Jin's real body.

"Tell me it's a realistic-looking Buddyroid."

"'Fraid not," Jin said, frowning. "Real and living. Though I wouldn't mind giving her a name like them. Kurozou Peanut, you think?"

"JIN!" This time, it was a bellow. At least Jin had the decency to stop trolling. "Why is there an elephant in the Command Center?"

Jin put on his best innocent expression. "Kurorin, is this all I mean to you? All those years of friendship? There's an elephant in the room, and it's automatically my fault—how can you think like that?"

"Because it usually IS."

Jin grimaced slightly. "You've got a point there."

Kuroki glared, holding off the urge to go straight for the aspirin...or the liquor cabinet. Finally, as he'd hoped, Jin caved.

"All right, all right," he admitted. "I know how it got here, but it's not my fault."

This was believable. Jin was a magnet for trouble—sometimes it just fell into his lap when he hadn't done anything. Sighing, Kuroki asked, "What happened?"

"You might need a drink for this one."

Kuroki couldn't help but groan loudly, which only led to Peanut the elephant trumpeting. To Kuroki's immense relief, Jin only gave the elephant a comforting pat before making his way to the locked cabinet where Kuroki had hidden the emergency stash of alcohol—for use when chickens, overheating, sugar crashes, or Jin and J had gotten to be too much for him. Jin grabbed the bottle of whiskey and poured more than the recommended amount—this was going to be a painful story.

"Here you go," he said, setting the overly full glass down in front of him. Kuroki knew he had to take a drink first before Jin said anything.

"What happened?" Kuroki asked again.

Jin stood at Nakamura's desk and started playing with one of her stuffed animals. "Well, you know the Kamen Riders?"

Kuroki took another drink. "Yes. We've got a whole file on them after the fiasco with Decade and Gokai Red."

"Missed that one," Jin admitted.

"Lucky you," Kuroki muttered.

Jin realized that his patience was running thin and added, "So there was a small incident involving three of them. Ryuki, OOO, and Den-O were sent back to the Edo Period."

That was messy enough to consider. From their file—not to mention the huge stack of migraines the Timerangers had slapped on his desk warning, "You're going to need this one day."—Den-O alone was the most troublesome Rider of them all, and Ryuki was no slouch either. "How does that explain the elephant, though?"

"I was getting to that part," Jin said.

There was an unusually tired look on Jin's face. Kuroki took one look at his glass and offered it to Jin. Even though he knew the alcohol wouldn't do anything to his avatar, Jin took a gulp.

"So. The whole thing started when Ryuki and Knight were fighting Odin..."


	2. Timesplosion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know what happens when Maki tries to make a Yummy out of Odin at the exact moment an Imajin possesses him? A whole lot of swearing, that's what.

The Elephant in the Room

by Akino Ame and Shaun Garin

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[SWORD VENT]

Ren caught his sword and charged straight at Odin, forcing the more powerful Rider to block with his own swords.

"You cannot hope to defeat me," Odin warned. "You are not yet strong enough."

A blast of fire suddenly hit him in the back. It threw off his balance long enough for Ren to disarm him, kicking away his swords. Odin turned to see Shinji behind him, Strike Vent on his arm.

"Maybe alone he is," he answered. "But together, we're both stronger than you!"

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence before Ren deadpanned, "Kido, shut up."

"Only one Rider is allowed to survive to the end," Odin reminded them. "If you desire the power to grant your wish, you must fight each other."

Seeing Ren hesitate, Shinji argued, "And we know that! But I think it'll be better if we can get you out of the way first? Right, Ren?"

Ren raised his sword again. "Shut up, Kido." This time, there was a clear note of gratitude in his voice.

Odin threw his hand out, creating a storm of explosive feathers. Before they ever had the chance to connect, Shinji blasted his Strike Vent again, creating a fiery explosion ahead of them. Ren leapt through it, bringing his sword down on Odin before he could react. Odin teleported to escape a second strike, but now Shinji was coming down on him with a Final Vent. He barely had the chance to teleport away, forcing Shinji to hit the ground in a rush of dragon fire.

"I was not yet prepared for this battle," Odin said, drawing another card from his deck. "Next time, I will be."

"Time Vent?" Shinji asked in dread. "You can't reset everything!"

Odin ignored him, inserting the card into his Visor. Shinji knew there was only one thing he could do. He dashed over and jumped, tackling Odin into a storefront window just as the Visor scanned the card.

[TIME VENT]

They fell through the glass, leaving a long crack in it. And they hit the floor inside the store, scaring shoppers into running out the door. The crack remained in the glass, glowing slightly.

"Kido!" Ren shouted on the other side of the glass.

Shinji groaned and sat up. He looked over at the glass, seeing Ren shouting for him in the Mirror World, and another Rider approaching him from behind.

"Ren, look out!" he yelled.

The warning came just in time, and Ren twisted out of Asakura's way. The homicidal Rider laughed and cracked his neck.

"You started the party without me," he said. "But I won't let it end early." He struck again, forcing Ren to block quickly.

"Ren!" Shinji cried, but a series of small explosions hit his back. He staggered, turning to see Odin behind him.

"You threw off the Time Vent," he said, sounding oddly angry for a puppet. "That crack is the only connection to our time."

"Wait, we actually traveled in time?" Shinji repeated.

Odin didn't answer, instead swinging his Visor at Shinji's head.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jin was attempting to juggle three of Nakamura's toys—a dog, a cat, and a bird—as he told the story.

"So this is where Den-O came in," Kuroki realized. "To undo the damage caused by the Time Vent."

"You're getting ahead of yourself, Kurorin," Jin answered, catching the toys. He held out the bird. "This is where OOO came in."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

People screaming always meant trouble, and trouble meant Eiji was running right into it. And that meant that Ankh and Hina weren't too far behind, with Ankh yelling the whole time.

"Eiji! There's no Yummy here!"

"Something's going on, and that's enough for me," Eiji decided, looking at the department store with the cracked window, where people were fleeing.

Hina helped usher some of the people to what she hoped was safety. "What is it, then?"

The door exploded off the store, and everyone immediately dropped for cover, with Eiji covering Hina, his entire body tense. As he and Ankh looked back over at the store, there was someone in red lying on the ground while a golden figure stepped out the door toward him.

"That's it, then," Eiji realized. "Ankh!"

Ankh huffed in exasperation. "No helping it then." He tossed a trio of Medals to Eiji, who caught them expertly.

"Be careful," Hina warned as Eiji attached the OOO Driver.

"Don't worry," Eiji promised. "I'll be back." He inserted the Medals into the Driver, then ran the scanner over it.

[TAKA! KUJAKU! CONDOR! TAJADOR!]

The figure in gold stood over the figure in red, ready to attack, but Eiji blasted feathers over at him, forcing him back. Both of them reacted in surprise as he flew over, standing protectively in front of the intended victim.

"Ah!" gasped the figure in red as he got to his feet. "You're a Rider?"

"Eh?" Eiji asked in surprise, looking behind him. Sure enough, that was a red-colored Kamen Rider behind him, wearing a very different style of belt. "Another Rider?"

A blast of wind came at them, with exploding feathers similar to Eiji's own attack. He was able to shield them with a swirl of fire, and once the attack stopped, he got a better look at his opponent.

"Don't tell me he's a Rider too!"

"Yeah," his new friend replied. "Kamen Rider Odin—he's tough. I'm Ryuki."

"OOO," Eiji answered. "Why is he attacking you?"

"It's a long story," Ryuki answered. "But I need to get back to help Ren!"

Eiji shot him another confused look, but Odin went on the offensive, attacking with a staff. The two red Riders separated, ready to counterattack, but blasts hit Odin, preventing a next move.

"Date!" Eiji cried in relief.

"Oi, Hino, looks like you and your friend got yourselves in a real mess," said the Kamen Rider-for-hire with a grin.

"A little bit," Eiji admitted. "Mind helping us out?"

"Well, I won't get paid for it, but why not?" Date answered. "I do expect to get paid back, of course!"

"Of course!" Eiji agreed.

As Date whipped on his Driver, Ryuki turned to Eiji. "You mean he's a Rider too? And he HELPS you?"

"Well, yeah," Eiji admitted.

The next thing he knew, Ryuki was hugging him.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This is where Den-O comes in?" Kuroki guessed as Jin continued juggling.

"Yeah," Jin answered, stopping for a moment to pose like the Rider. "Den-O sanjou."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oi, get back over here!" Momotaros yelled as he chased a floating orb of light with a butterfly net.

"Sempai, we have to catch that Imajin before it makes a contract with somebody!" Urataros warned.

"I know that!" Momotaros shouted back as the four Imajin dashed through the city after the light.

"Stupid Momo's going to lose the Imajin!" Ryutaros taunted. "Hey, you think Owner will kick him off DenLiner this time?"

"It's very possible," Kintaros admitted, his head narrowly missing Ryuta's net. "And with Ryotarou focusing on his studies, there's no reason for him to keep Momonoji around either."

"I'm not gonna get kicked out!" Momotaros shrieked.

"Sempai, we're frightening everyone here," Urataros noticed, waving briefly at a few pretty women who fled the scene. "Shouldn't we have at least used disguises?"

"We don't have time!" Momotaros argued. "By the time we possessed the costumes, that Imajin would have gotten away. I'm the leader, so you guys gotta listen to what I say!"

"Why's stupid Momo got to be the leader?" Ryutaros complained. "I wanna be the leader—let me!"

"A leader should be strong!" Kintaros disagreed. "Momonoji's been falling behind lately."

"WHAT?" Momotaros shrieked.

"I agree, Sempai has not been nearly as effective recently," Urataros admitted. "Perhaps it's time for a more intelligent leader?"

"What are you talking about, you perverted turtle?" Momotaros ranted.

An explosion up ahead shut all of them up for a moment, but Ryutaros soon asked, "Did stupid Momo mess up something again?"

"That wasn't me!" Momotaros yelled. "Something else is going on!"

The Imajin light was headed toward the source of the explosion, and the Taroses could see a trio of Riders battling a golden Rider, who was giving them a hard time.

"All right," Momotaros decided, whipping on the henshin belt. "I'll show you what kind of leader I am! Henshin!" He swiped his Rider Pass over the belt.

[SWORD FORM]

Kamen Rider Den-O's armor formed over the red Imajin's body, and he posed.

"Ore sanjou!" Standing up straight, he formed a sword with the DenGasher pieces at his side. "I'll show you—from start to finish, I'm always at a climax!" And the hot-blooded Imajin Rider ran into the fray.

The two red Riders were fighting the golden one with fists and fire while a green one stood farther back and fired a blaster at him. Momotaros ran right past the green Rider, screaming, "Go, go, go!" as he slashed at the golden Rider with the DenGasher. The golden Rider didn't see it coming and backed away in pain.

"And another Rider?" one of the reds asked in disbelief.

Momotaros looked over at them, recognizing one. "Hey, you're OOO! I didn't know we were in your time!"

"Ah, well..." OOO started before he suddenly doubled over, shouting in pain.

"OOO!" the other red cried. "Are you okay?"

"Eiji!" shouted a familiar human with stupid-looking hair. "It's—"

"I know," OOO moaned, his mask's eyes momentarily turning purple. "Maki's here."

"Who?" Momotaros asked before a light floated past him. "The Imajin!"

Standing nearby was Dr. Maki, whose eyes flashed purple as he tossed a Cell Medal toward the battle, just as the Imajin entered.

The Medal entered Odin's back.

So did the Imajin.

Gold energy spilled out from his body, spreading out in a wave.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jin walked over to the bottle of whiskey and poured himself a glass.

"You know what happens when Maki tries to make a Yummy out of Odin at the exact moment an Imajin possesses him?"

"What?"

"A whole lot of swearing, that's what." 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"SHIT!" 

"DAMNIT!"

Time exploded.

So did the cracked window leading to the Mirror World of Shinji's time.


	3. Chaos + Order = Squeak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But the force for order and the force for chaos balance each other out, and time puts itself back together in the only way that makes sense—to itself, at least.
> 
> An elephant?
> 
> Not yet, but we're getting there.

Jin took a drink before holding up the dog and cat toys. "Odin controls time, right? Maki wanted to use him to go back and destroy everything, ending the universe at its beginning. But the Imajin wanted to grant Odin's wish in exchange for destroying his time."

"Sounds like the same thing," Kuroki noticed.

"Not quite. Look at it this way—the universe contains entropy: think of it like chaos or disorder, and the longer time goes on, the more entropy there is. What Maki wants is the ultimate kind of order—an end to everything. If nothing exists..."

"Then no chaos," Kuroki realized.

"Bingo! The Imajin want to destroy time, but not in the same way. They don't want it to end—they just want to create a timeline of pure chaos for themselves. So when you have a strong desire for order," he held up the cat, "and a strong desire for chaos," he held up the dog now, "and you bring them together..." He brought the toys together forcefully, causing one of them to squeak.

"Squeak?" Kuroki guessed.

"Time explodes," Jin explained. "It can't handle that kind of pressure, and it's destroyed. But the force for order and the force for chaos balance each other out, and time puts itself back together in the only way that makes sense—to itself, at least."

"An elephant?" Kuroki asked incredulously.

"Not yet," Jin promised, taking another drink. "But we're getting there."

Kuroki looked at his empty glass for a moment before grabbing the whole bottle.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Get up!"

Shinji groaned as he opened his eyes. Everything hurt, and there was the taste of burning left in his mouth. Somebody in a kimono and hakama was standing over him, with a sword at his belt. His hair was surprisingly long enough to be tied back in a ponytail that trailed down his back, which made it hard for Shinji to recognize him at first.

"Ren?" he asked. "Why are you dressed like a samurai?"

Ren's eyes widened in shock for a moment, then he held a katana to Shinji's face. "How do you know my name?"

Some part of Shinji groaned. Did their first meeting ALWAYS have to start with Ren trying to kill him?

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wait," Kuroki interrupted, giving Jin a chance to drain his glass. "Only one of them was affected by the time distortion?"

"Yep," Jin explained. "It had to do with the distance—the closer you were to the timesplosion, the more normal you were. But go out farther, and you got adapted more and more into the new timeline. Shinji, Momo, and Eiji were fighting Odin, so they were best off. Ren was a lot farther away, so when the wave hit him, poof. Instant samurai."

"Even from the Mirror World?" Kuroki asked.

"That'd be a no, normally, but Shinji broke things badly when he tackled Odin the first time," Jin said. "Remember that crack? It was connecting worlds and times."

"So it wasn't just our time period suffering," Kuroki realized. "Anything before or after it was."

"Especially when you add an Imajin into the mix," Jin said. "Anyway, where was I? Oh, right. Next Rider, Eiji."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some days, it didn't pay to get out of bed, Eiji reflected as he struggled to get himself to a sitting position. As soon as he crawled out of the lake that was.

Pulling himself out of it, he shook himself over like a dog, slicking his matted hair away from his face to look at all the splendor that was the 1700s. "Great," he groaned, realizing that this place was far too dirty to be Kyoto's movie lot.

Leaving muddy tracks as he wandered into town, he ducked behind a cart, and with a quick bow, stole a hat off it to place on his head. There was enough about his clothing that screamed "newcomer" and he was quick to get the hell out of this place as soon as he found Ankh or any recognizable person.

The sharp tweet of a whistle however brought Eiji out of his thoughts as a figure barreled along the road. It was a slender kid, about fifteen or so and he was clutching a loaf of bread. Chasing after him was a group of men with a flower-like motif on their hakama, and feeling a pang of pity, Eiji reached out, snagged the boy and pulled him into the nearby alley as the men stampeded by. "You should really be more careful if you steal things," he admonished.

The young boy grunted and struck out at Eiji's knee with a kick. "I was doing just fine till those Shiba hounds found me," growled the young boy.

Eiji hopped on one foot for a moment, wincing as he got his first look at him. "Um, have we met before?"

"Don't think so," replied the kid, looking over his shoulder. "I think I lost the guys though."

TWEET went a whistle at that very moment and Eiji turned to see a crowd of angry men. "The punk has a friend! Get them both!"

Eiji yelped and seeing that he was dealing with a angry mob, turned and said, "Wait, I'm not with him I'm...!" But the kid had dashed off and the men were advancing. With no other choice, he turned tail and ran for it, as the men chased after the pair.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"That kid wasn't Ankh, was it?" Kuroki asked.

"Nope," Jin answered, beginning to type something at Nakamura's computer. Knowing him, it could be anything from the official mission report to wildly smutty fanfiction. "It was Den-O, actually. The actual Rider, Ryotarou."

"Nogami?" Kuroki repeated in disbelief. "I know enough about him to know he's a singular point—it's impossible for him to be affected by the change in time."

Jin smirked. "When Riders break something, they REALLY break it. Turns out Ryotarou and Yuuto got word that something was going down. Unfortunately, they arrived just as everything exploded. The four guys closest to the explosion—Shinji, Eiji, Ankh, and Momo—didn't get affected, but everyone else did."

"So what happened to them?"

"I'll get to that in a minute, but first, Ankh and Momotaros..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CHARGED IN THERE!"

The elephant trumpeted, knocking both Momotaros and Ankh off her back.

Momotaros fell hard on his butt while Ankh landed with all the grace of an extremely pissed-off bird.

"Assbird," Momotaros muttered.

"Idiot," Ankh countered.

The elephant sucked up some water from a nearby trough and sprayed it at the both of them.

Ankh spat out some of the water in his mouth in a spray while Momotaros ranted, "That's it! I don't need a stupid elephant getting in the middle of this too!"

"One thing we can agree on," Ankh added, holding up his Greeed arm.

RRROOOOAAARRR!

Momotaros fell over again, and Ankh turned around in alarm. There, standing less than six feet away, was a HUGE T-rex breathing down on them.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Momotaros shrieked.

Ankh was ready to attack, but a new voice suddenly shouted, "What's with all the racket out there?!"

"Uh-oh," Momotaros realized, quickly jumping to possess Ankh. Ankh's hair suddenly turned into a blonde pompadour streaked through with red, and while his right arm still looked Greeed-ish, the left was Momotaros's.

"What's the big idea?" Ankh demanded.

"Like I'm gonna get caught here!" Momotaros argued.

Somewhere in there, Shingo tried to get a say in, but they squashed him out of the way.

"What is going on?" the voice asked, and a young man in a green kimono rounded the corner.

"Eh?" Momotaros asked, looking at the newcomer in confusion. "Yuuto?"

_"Who?"_ asked Ankh's mental voice.

Yuuto grinned. "Good to know someone knows me. You must be the new guy."

Momotaros floundered, too shocked by the fact that Yuuto was smiling and apparently happy to make any sense of his question. Ankh quickly answered, "Yes."

"That explains it," Yuuto answered. "Let me guess—Maki told you to bring the elephant to the pen, and somebody pointed you to the dinosaurs. Man, we've TALKED to them about hazing!"

"Maki?!" Ankh asked in shock.

_"Who's that?"_ Momotaros asked.

"Wait, Maki's the one who hazed you?" Yuuto asked, not understanding. "Man, never thought he had it in him. Anyway, lead the elephant this way, and I'll introduce you to the rest of the act."

As Yuuto walked off, Momotaros muttered, "It is WEIRD seeing him happy."

"So, Maki's here," Ankh answered in the same breath, totally ignoring Momo's comment. "I'll have to find Eiji before he does."

"Heh, not with me possessing you," Momotaros taunted.

"Shut up!" Ankh yelled. "I'M the one possessing YOU!"

"Oh yeah?" Momotaros argued, raising his fist and smacking himself in the nose.

"OW!" the two shouted at once.

Yuuto turned back to them in confusion. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah, yeah," Momotaros answered, rubbing his nose and fighting off Ankh trying to call him an idiot.

The elephant gave up and picked their body up with her trunk, carrying them after Yuuto.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So that's where Peanut came from," Kuroki realized. "But how did we end up with her?"

"I'm not there yet," Jin explained. "A few other things happened along the way."

"And everybody else who was there was integrated into the new timeline?" Kuroki checked.

"Yep, though the only ones they really noticed were other Riders."

Kuroki nodded and started to take another sip of his drink when he remembered, "Wait, Ouja was in the Mirror World at the time. If Knight was pulled in..."

"Yep," Jin sighed. "That's ANOTHER mess they got themselves into."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eiji and Ryotarou turned the corner and hid between two houses, breathing heavily.

"I think we lost them," Eiji sighed. He looked over at the teen. "Ryotarou, right? How did you end up with all those samurai chasing you?"

Ryotarou caught his breath and looked at the bread he'd stolen. "I don't even remember. I just know I was sneaking away with the bread when all of a sudden, I bumped into Tokuda—he's a fire captain and samurai who's friends with Lord Retsudo of the Shiba."

"Tokuda?" Eiji repeated, surprised to hear an old friend's name. "But even if he caught you stealing, he's not the kind of person who would turn you in. Not if it looks like you really needed what you took."

"I know," Ryotarou admitted. "He said that he could tell I was a much more noble person than that, and I was betraying myself by stealing. But then Lord Retsudo overheard him, and..."

"And the samurai chase," Eiji realized. "Well, we should be safe now. There's no samurai here."

"None with any masters, at least," laughed a sinister voice.

They turned and saw a gleaming sword held by a wild-looking samurai who cracked his neck as he approached.

"Ryotarou, run!" Eiji warned.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Something just occurred to me," Kuroki realized.

"What?!" Jin cried, almost falling out of his seat. "What's the deal with interrupting me when we're at the good part?"

"Sorry," Kuroki apologized. "But the other Den-O Imajin were also there when the explosion happened. Were they running rampant in the new timeline?"

"No, they got intercepted pretty fast when Yuuto and Ryotarou came in," Jin answered. "Let me backtrack a bit..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was one bright side to being de-aged seven years. High school was a lot easier the second time around. Ryotarou's luck was still terrible, but he had much more confidence and strength from his adventures as Den-O. He was even thinking of himself less as an adult stuck in a teenager's body and growing more comfortable with being a kid. His classmates didn't seem as young in his eyes anymore; he was even beginning to make new friends.

But old friends always came first, especially when they interrupted math class.

The teacher looked over as the classroom door opened, only to gasp in shock when she saw the inside of a train. That caught everyone's attention, and in the rush to try to get out of his seat, Ryotarou fell backwards in his chair.

"Easy enough finding you, Nogami," Yuuto said as he and Deneb walked into the classroom. "Just look for the only one on the floor."

"I'm sorry for the interruption," Deneb apologized to the teacher, bowing and offering a basket of lollipops. "Here, have some candy."

"Yuuto, what's going on?" Ryotarou asked, failing to get to his feet.

Yuuto didn't even wait for him to hurt himself again. He bent over and picked up the smaller Rider, carrying him over his shoulder. "Huge problem. Some kind of time-warping enemy. Momotaros and the others are out of their league."

"What?" Ryotarou asked in shock.

"No time to explain," Yuuto insisted, carrying him onto ZeroLiner and plopping him in a seat. Deneb followed and closed the door behind them. "Owner let me know we're probably going to need a singular point."

"Even then, there's no guarantee things will work out," Deneb added.

"It's that bad?" Ryotarou realized.

"The words 'wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey' were used," Yuuto explained with a grimace.

Ryotarou nodded seriously. "Did Owner give you..."

"The K-Taros? Yeah," Yuuto answered, handing the phone over to him. "You should be all set for Climax Form. But I've known you long enough to know that's not your plan."

"No," he replied. "If it's that bad, then Liner Form stands a better chance, especially if it affects the Imajin."

"But Nogami, are you sure your body is strong enough to handle it?" Deneb asked.

Ryotarou smiled and nodded. "I'm almost at the age I was when I originally got it. I should be fine."

Yuuto gave him a suspicious look, but the train came to a stop. "Not like we've got the time to argue about it. C'mon."

The three stepped out of ZeroLiner, some meters away from the battle. There, Urataros, Kintaros, and Ryutaros were racing to back up Momotaros, only to stop short when they saw Ryotarou with Yuuto and Deneb.

"Ryotarou?" Urataros asked in surprise while Ryutaros jumped on his shoulder and cried out, "Ryotarou!" before grabbing him in a hug.

"Hey, hey, you're getting big!" Ryuta cheered.

"I'm glad to see you guys," Ryotarou insisted.

"No time for that," Yuuto warned. "Where's Momo?"

"Momonoji ran to join the battle," Kintaros answered.

"Idiot!" Yuuto cried. "The distortion could erase him!"

"I have to go after him," Ryotarou insisted. "Everyone else, get on ZeroLiner."

"But Ryotarou!" Urataros protested.

"It's safer there," he replied, running off.

Yuuto was about to chase after him when Deneb grabbed his arm.

"Yuuto, take me with you!" he begged. "At least to use Zero Form!"

"Idiot, didn't you hear Nogami?" he argued, trying to wrestle free. "The distortion could erase you—get on the train!"

"Odebu, hurry!" Ryutaros cried as they boarded.

But it was too late. The temporal explosion sent off shockwaves of energy that soon consumed Ryotarou, Yuuto, and Deneb. All that could be heard was Yuuto's cursing as the energy sent ZeroLiner back to the sands of time.


	4. The Good Part

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No, circuses are for dinosaurs and elephants, haven't you been listening?

"So the other three made it back on the time train?" Kuroki checked.

"Yep," Jin answered, typing away.

There was a long pause. Jin frowned as he looked over what he'd typed, then deleted some of it and rewrote.

"So what happened to Ryotarou next?"

"Oh, NOW you want to hear the good part," Jin complained.

Maybe Kuroki was just that drunk, because he said, "Sorry."

"You better be," Jin answered. "Just for that, you're going to have to hear the other side of the story. And it's a sappy love story."

"A love story?" Kuroki repeated.

"Baby, just say yes," Jin said with a smirk.

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With a long-suffering sigh, Shinji explained, "You're my friend, Ren. Kinda. We probably would be if it weren't for the Rider War, and you and I fight all the time anyway, but..."

Proving that Shinji had absolutely no reason to be sighing when _that_ was his idea of an explanation, Ren stared at him in confusion, lowering his sword. Shinji figured that it was safe to stand up at that point, and he dusted himself off. But the next thing he knew, Ren had sheathed his sword and was bowing, exposing a thin chain around his neck.

"What's going on?" Shinji asked in confusion.

"Bow," Ren hissed.

"What?"

Ren pulled him down. "Bow or you'll get us both killed!"

That was serious enough to get Shinji to listen, and from his view of the ground, he could see that everyone else on the street had done the same thing. He caught a glimpse of two pairs of feet, both in traditional geta. One belonged to someone wearing similar hakama as Ren, and the other belonged to someone in a flowery blue kimono.

"Ren of the Akiyama clan," said a man's voice.

Shinji caught a barely noticeable wince from Ren. Immediately worrying Ren was in trouble, Shinji nearly bolted up to defend him, but Ren recognized an invitation to rise, and he did so calmly.

"Lady Eri, Tokuda," he answered.

Shinji relaxed a bit. No wonder Ren was so nervous, if Eri was in this strange world!

"Ren, you don't have to be so formal," Eri said. "We've known each other for years."

"When my clan was in better standing with your uncle," Ren answered solemnly.

"I'm sure he'll forgive your clan," she insisted. "He's already been very generous to you!"

"That's too much to ask," he replied, his voice almost too quiet to be heard.

Shinji's good feeling was gone completely. Even here, Ren and Eri couldn't be together.

"Lord Retsudo has spoken highly of you as his vassal," the other man, Tokuda, insisted. "I'm sure he's mentioned as such to the Shogun."

Ren didn't answer, but then the clatter of armor was heard as a team of samurai ran over.

"Akiyama!" one of them called.

Ren bowed to him. "Captain Shiraishi, I couldn't find the thief."

"We're calling off the search for him," Shiraishi replied. "The ronin, Asakura, has been sighted."

This time, Shinji did bolt up. "Asakura? Here?"

Nobody bothered to correct him on his etiquette—already, civilians were running into their homes and shops and locking the doors.

"The Ikenami are trying to hold him off now, but he's escaped their water brigades," Shiraishi warned. "He's coming this way—probably drawn to the Shiba brigade chasing the thief."

"And guarding Lady Eri," Tokuda realized.

"You need to get to safety," Ren warned Eri. "Tokuda..."

But the next thing they knew, someone shouted in pain, and a young man and a teenage boy came tumbling out of an alleyway. Laughing as he shrugged his arm out of a tattered purple kimono was the unmistakable Asakura.

"Get behind me," Ren told Eri, stepping ahead of her as he and Tokuda pulled their swords.

Nearby, the other samurai were also standing by, with Shiraishi holding a calligraphy brush. He started to raise it, probably to signal his men to attack, but the two civilians were still in the way. Unable to wait any longer, Shinji did the only thing he could think of—he ran in and tackled Asakura.

"Hurry, run!" he warned the two civilians.

"Not without you," the man insisted.

Asakura was getting up, ready to bring his sword down on Shinji. Without a second thought, the other man grabbed his arms, trying to keep him from swinging, while the boy grabbed Asakura around the middle. Then Shinji felt someone grab his arm and saw Ren running to get him and the boy out of the way while Tokuda charged in, slashing at Asakura. Shinji cried out in shock as he watched the ronin crumple.

"He won't stay down long," Ren warned, pushing Shinji and the boy between two houses.

"Tokuda uses a reverse-blade sword," the boy added.

"It's enough to stall him, at least," Tokuda insisting, leading the other man to their cover. "Shiraishi, now!"

The samurai raised his calligraphy brush and sketched out a glowing pink kanji for "wind." Suddenly, a powerful gust blasted from him straight at Asakura, throwing him right through an empty building, dropping the roof on him. While Shinji and his nameless rescuer/rescuee stared in shock, all of the samurai on scene ran forward. Ren went ahead, checking through the wreckage until he'd found Asakura. Only after tying his hands together did he turn to the others.

"He's unconscious," he told his captain with a quick bow. "Should be safe to transport to prison."

"Good work," Shiraishi answered. "Captains Hanaori and Tani can take it from here."

Ren nodded, but he was focusing past the crowd. Shiraishi followed his gaze and saw Eri giving him a worried look.

"I'll escort Lady Eri to Lord Retsudo's home," Shiraishi promised. "Your priority is to check on the civilians caught in the attack."

"Yes," Ren answered with a hesitant bow.

Shiriashi then clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Good work. You saved two out of three suicidally crazy young men. I'll pass this on to Lord Retsudo."

Dismissed, Ren walked back to the others, barely able to look at Eri as Shiraishi bowed to her and escorted her away, flanked by half a dozen remaining samurai. Shinji and Tokuda met up with Ren first, as the boy tried to apply pressure to a cut on his companion's shoulder.

"Ren..." Shinji started.

"Captain Shiraishi is a member of one of the five clans entrusted with the power of mojikara by the Emperor," Tokuda reminded Ren. "Lady Eri could not be in safer hands, or more honorable."

Ren's shame was clear as he admitted, "You're right."

Then Tokuda smiled. "But to tell you the truth, I would have preferred for you to escort her, had it been my decision."

Ren kept his expression carefully neutral, but Shinji grinned at him all the same. Only then, out of relief and gratitude, could he let slip a small, rare smile.

"Now to check on our guests," Tokuda insisted, turning his attention to the two civilians. The boy gave him a look of alarm, but he smiled gently and said, "Didn't I tell you that you were more noble than the thief you tried to be?"

"Tokuda," the other man argued, trying to stand up. "Ryotarou wasn't trying to hurt anyone. I can help make up for what he stole, but there's no way he did it maliciously."

Tokuda held up a hand to stop him, and once he saw that, he let Ryotarou ease him back into sitting down. "I don't believe that he would any more than you do. But I'm glad to hear you speak for him, and I humbly thank you for your help against Asakura. But what is Kamen Rider OOO doing back in this time again?"

"Eh?" Shinji asked, looking at him. "You're OOO?"

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"They knew him?" Kuroki asked, slurring slightly.

Jin got up and took the bottle away from him. "You're gonna thank me for this later when you're hungover. Yes, Eiji and Tokuda knew each other. Some kind of bizarre time travel accident that happened previously. Led to Eiji getting a set of Medals that belonged to the Tokugawa family, though he returned them to their descendents as soon as the incident was over. They were actually the only Medals that didn't end up incorporated into that giant Greeed that attacked the city."

"What giant Greeed attacking the city?" Kuroki asked.

Jin tsked. "Really, Kurorin? It happened a year ago, at least, and you definitely couldn't miss it. How is it I know about that and you don't?"

Kuroki couldn't think of an explanation, so Jin continued, "Guess it's a good time to check in with Momo and Assbird now..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once they'd gotten Peanut back in the proper pen, Yuuto led Momotaros-Ankh-Shingo into the back of one of the tents.

"Over here is wardrobe, where the rest of the act are," he said. "Hey, guys, come meet the new guy!"

Momotaros-Ankh stood very still and very confused as Chiyoko and Hina looked up from a black costume they were repairing and Deneb modeled a bright green, sparkling cape.

"Odebu?" Momotaros asked in shock as Deneb came over with a basket of candy.

"Ah, it's Deneb," he said. "Welcome to our circus! Please accept this candy as a welcome gift!"

Momotaros was ready to start into the basket, but Hina walked over suddenly, staring at him in shock.

"Oniichan?" she asked.

_"Eh?"_ Momotaros asked in surprised. _"You're her brother?"_

_"Not me, idiot, HE is,"_ Ankh snapped back.

"Oniichan, you came," Hina realized tearfully. "After everything, you still came to see me..."

Clearly picking up on the awkward tension, Yuuto took the basket from him and pulled Deneb out of the way. Chiyoko put the costume away and asked, "Did you say that Shingo would be joining us?"

Even with tears running down her face, Hina's smile couldn't be brighter. "Really, Oniichan?" She then grabbed him in the mother of all bear hugs. Ankh tried to brace for it while Momotaros was caught entirely off-guard, and only a strangled "gack!" could be heard from them.

"I'm so glad, Oniichan," Hina whispered. "I promise we'll make you proud."

Oblivious to the poor, possessed brother gasping for air, Deneb said, "Aww, a happy family reunion."

"Come on, Hina," Chiyoko coaxed, taking her arm. "Let's put together an outfit for your brother—something red, I think?"

Hina nodded and let go, leaving the Imajin-Greeed-human struggling to catch his breath.

_"Does she do this to you ALL THE TIME?"_ Momotaros asked.

_"Yeah,"_ Ankh complained. _"When she's not grabbing me by the ear or breaking my hand."_

_"Think I underestimated you, birdboy. You gotta be something if you put up with THAT all the time."_

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"How did Moankgo end up back with the others?"

Jin looked at Kuroki in confusion. "Who?"

"Momo Ankh Shingo. Moankgo."

"You are _really_ drunk."

"No, I'm not."

A pause.

"Yes, I am."

"Good. And we'll get to that in a bit, but it ties with other stuff going on with the circus. Right now, we need to return to the party as they got patched up. When Eiji heard that Date was there, he knew that he was their best chance for a good doctor and some privacy so he and Shinji could figure it all out. So Tokuda got them through admissions with Date's gorilla secretary..."

"Gorilla secretary?"

Jin rolled his eyes. "You know, the little Candroid he uses to detect Yummys."

Kuroki nodded. "So, a little gorilla machine acting as secretary."

"No, a real gorilla, thanks to the timesplosion."

Kuroki stared. "A real gorilla. Secretary. Why isn't he in the circus?"

Jin groaned. "Because the circus is for dinosaurs and elephants, haven't you been listening? Gorillas are secretaries in this new timeline. Gorisaki, in fact, was a great secretary for our team."

"We were in it?"

"Duh," Jin explained. "We ran a rival circus, where Hiromu was a clown, Ryuji was a strongman, and Yoko was an acrobat. 'Least, that's what J told me. We were doing better than Maki's circus, though. We had more elephants."

Jin logic was close enough to drunk logic for Kuroki to accept. "Continue."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Eiji heard that Date was there, he knew that he was their best chance for a good doctor and some privacy so he and Shinji could figure it all out. So Tokuda got them through admissions with Date's gorilla secretary—something that did throw off Eiji a bit.

"...Shouldn't that be in a circus?" he asked, staring in confusion as he clutched his wound.

Date looked at Eiji like he'd grown another head. "No, circuses are for dinosaurs and elephants. Where have _you_ been?"

"Things may work differently where he's from," Tokuda explained. "Eiji is from the distant future."

"Really?" Date asked, breaking out a some cotton balls from an enormous sake jug. "What's the oden like in the future?"

It was one of those Date moments that left Eiji utterly confused and unable to answer anything other than "Good?"

It was enough for Date, and he grinned as he started to examine Eiji's wound.

The two samurai knelt, and Shinji sat with his legs crossed. Ryotarou, still holding onto his bread, kept away from them to try to help Date take care of Eiji. Noticing the look of absolute confusion Ren was trying to hide, Tokuda asked, "How is it that you've returned to our time, Eiji?"

Eiji had tensed up as a sake-scented disinfectant was applied to his wounded shoulder. Hearing the question, he hissed, "There was some kind of timesplosion—"

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Jin."

"What?"

"I'm drunk, and even I know he didn't say 'timesplosion.'"

"Hey, it's my story, and I can tell it how I want."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"There was some kind of timesplosion from three different enemies merging. There was an Imajin and a Yummy..."

"And Odin," Shinji added. "He's a Kamen Rider, like us, but he controls time."

Tokuda nodded gravely. "This is a very serious matter. And the two of you were battling him at the time?"

"Yeah, but there were others too," Shinji added. "Like Ren!"

He pointed at Ren, who gave him a suspicious look. "That's impossible. I've never met you before today."

"No, you're from the same time as Shinji," Eiji insisted. "Date was there too."

"Really?" Date asked excitedly, going back to his sake jar for more medical supplies. Eiji supposed it was the timesplosion's equivalent to his Cell Medal Tank. "What's future me like?"

"Pretty much the same," Eiji admitted. "Except with weapons."

"Nice!" Date cried before wrapping a roll of bandages around Eiji's wound.

"You can't believe that, can you?" Ren asked.

"I'm just a simple doctor with a gorilla secretary," Date admitted. "Can I help it if I want to dream of something awesome?"

There was absolutely no sane response to that statement, so Tokuda ignored it and admitted, "It's possible that your timesplosion may have been more thorough than the debacle with Gara was with interfering with time.  Personal timelines may have been rewritten entirely."

"The only one who'd be able to tell us for sure is Den-O," Eiji lamented.

"Den-O?" Ryotarou repeated, surprised.

"Don't you mean oden?" Date checked.

"No, Den-O was another Rider that was with us at the time," Eiji explained. "But I haven't seen him. Or Ankh or Hina."

"Who knows who else might have been dragged into this new timeline?" Shinji realized.

"Were the two of you the ones actively engaging this Odin?" Tokuda asked.

"Oden?" Date asked again.

"Yes—no!" Eiji replied, trying to correct Date. "It was Shinji, Momotaros—Den-O, and me fighting Odin. Ankh was pretty close too because he sensed Maki."

"Date, may I borrow some money?" Tokuda asked.

Date frowned. "Normally, I'd say no, but I know you."

He nodded to his secretary, who proceeded to toss several coins of various sizes at Tokuda, who caught them as expertly as Eiji catching Medals, much to the others' surprise. Tokuda then laid down the smallest coin on the floor.

"This represents the battle with Odin, where Shinji, Eiji, and Momotaros fought."

Eiji's eyes widened as he caught on. He pointed at a spot close to the coin and said, "And here's where Ankh was, close enough to help." Tokuda put a coin the same size there.

"Where was Date?" Tokuda asked.

"Right here," Eiji pointed, a little farther away. Tokuda placed a slightly larger coin there.

"And Ren?" he asked, looking at Shinji.

"Uh," Shinji paused for a moment, trying to map out in his head where the battle had been. "There was another time rift, but right about here, or so..." He pointed to another spot farther away. Tokuda put a much larger coin down.

"What are you doing?" Ryotarou asked.

"Making a map of the distortions," Eiji explained. "Hina was helping people evacuate, so she was much farther away. Probably about the same distortion effect as Date." Tokuda placed another medium coin down. "Do you see?"

Date nodded. "I've got a lot more money than I thought I did."

"No, look at the sizes!" Eiji insisted. "The closer anyone is to Odin, the less the distortion. But the farther away..."

"The more they adapt to the timeline!" Shinji realized.

"Exactly," Eiji agreed. "Ren and Asakura were separated from us by another time rift, so that's even farther away. Anyone else in your timeline was probably grabbed."

"Like Eri!" Shinji cried, prompting Ren to stare at him in disbelief. "And she was even farther away than that!"

Eiji nodded. "I think Hina and Date were where things started to become most distorted, and everything went outwards from there. The farther the timesplosion went out, the stronger it got. For example, someone in America could have really been affected."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"As a note, I heard that Time Force, the American offices of Timeranger, in 3000 were drinking up a storm while dealing with this. Also some guy named Alex kept slamming his head into the desk."

"Ah."

"You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

"Not a word."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Then what do we do?" Ryotarou asked, and everyone looked at him in surprise.

With a hint of pride toward the boy, Tokuda said, "We'll head to Lord Retsudo's to see if we can find your friends." Ryotarou started to protest, but Tokuda insisted, "You only have to come if you want." Ryotarou nodded.

"All right," Date agreed, getting one last roll of bandages on Eiji's shoulder. "You be careful, got that?"

"Right, thanks, Date," Eiji answered. He looked to Shinji. "Let's go."

"All right!" Shinji agreed.

The two Riders headed off, about to be followed by the samurai and the thief. But before the others could go, Date warned, "Can I have a word with you, Tokuda?"

Tokuda stopped Ren and Ryotarou from following, signaling Ren to keep an eye on Eiji and Shinji. "What is it?"

"I didn't know how to say it with him right there, but that guy's wound is much worse than he thought. Worse than I've ever seen," he explained. " When did Asakura start using snake venom on his blade?"

Though Tokuda didn't react, Ren and Ryotarou both stared in shock.

"What?" Ren asked.

"Is Eiji going to be okay?" Ryotarou asked.

"Can't say," Date admitted. "But I might be able to make an antidote if I have a sample of the venom. Think you can get me the sword?"

"Of course," Ryotarou answered before Tokuda could.

Date grinned and ruffled his hair. "Knew you were a good kid, there."

Tokuda turned to Ren. "I hate to ask this of you, but I need you to retrieve Asakura's sword." Despite the letdown of not seeing Eri, Ren nodded. "I would do it myself, but..."

"I'm only Lord Retsudo's vassal, and you're his equal," he replied.

"That doesn't matter," Tokuda insisted. "The Shiba clan know to listen to their vassals. But if Shinji and Eiji are right, Asakura is your enemy. You stand a much better chance against him should he escape."

"I'm going with you," Ryotarou insisted.

"It's too dangerous," Ren argued. "Either stay here or go with them."

"I'm the one who got Eiji into this mess with Asakura in the first place," Ryotarou said. "I have to help him."

Without another word, Tokuda removed his sword and presented it to the boy, while the others stared.

"What are you..." Ren started.

"This reverse-blade sword is designed not to kill an opponent, but to still teach them a valuable lesson in pain," Tokuda explained to Ryotarou. "It may not be enough to stop Asakura, but it might protect you just enough." Then, with a wry smile, he added, "And it's better than a loaf of bread."

Ryotarou smiled and took the sword. "Thank you, Tokuda."

Tokuda looked back to Ren. "If I know the Shiba, they've asked the Hinos at Hikawa Shrine to keep Asakura in custody for the night. They'll have his sword too and probably try to destroy it. Stop them before that happens."

Ren nodded, then looked to Ryotarou. "Let's go."


	5. Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've really gotten us into it this time.

"Break time," Jin decided.

"What?" Kuroki asked. "Now?"

"Yeah, I know it's getting good, but Peanut here needs a snack," Jin explained, rubbing the elephant's side. "C'mon, Kurorin. Let's get something out of the vending machine. You're buying."

Too drunk to argue, Kuroki let Jin take his wallet and guide him out to the break room, where Jin spent several hundred yen on all the peanuts in the vending machine. Before he knew it, Jin placed a bag of wasabi crackers and a bottle of water in front of him.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Hangover prevention," Jin insisted.

"Does it work?" Kuroki asked.

Jin shrugged. "Anyway, eat that before we head back to feed Peanut."

"In silence?" Kuroki asked.

Jin smirked. "I've got you hooked, don't I? Well, you know, probably now is a good time to check in on the rest of the DenLiner crew, because it's been crazier than usual on their end..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The train of time, DenLiner. Will it stop in the past? The future?

Neither, actually. It was currently joined to KingLiner as it searched for the time-lost ZeroLiner. About five-hundred people had just been forced to take refuge, including two young women with Shodophones named Shiba, whom Naomi had to find green tea for when they admitted they preferred a traditional tea ceremony over coffee. The younger brother of one of the girls had taken his coffee black.

"Quite a conundrum you've found yourself in," commented Station Master as he and Owner took part in their yearly fried rice contest.

"Indeed," agreed Owner. "I had hoped that Ryotarou and Yuuto would have been able to prevent the joining of powers, but it appears it was well beyond their skills."

"Have you considered asking Koutarou to help again?" Station Master asked, scooping up some rice.

Owner put his spoon into the mound of rice and halted when he saw the flag threatening to tip over. But when it remained steady, he took up his scoop. "His parents gave a strict warning that he was studying for final exams and could not be interrupted."

Station Master couldn't help but smile. "Even when his textbooks have been eaten by a pterodactyl?"

"Pteranodon, actually," Owner replied. "But I believe that we will have more help soon enough."

No sooner did he say that than the door open and a teenage girl stomped in. The flag toppled over in their rice, and both Owner and Station Master raised their hands in distress before setting aside their competition to look over at the new arrival.

"All right," Kohana said, glaring. "Who broke time?"

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What _did_ happen to Koutarou anyway?" Kuroki interrupted.

"Well..." Jin started.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Koutarou held his fedora tight to his head as he ran through the caverns, screaming. The boulder behind him was rolling ever closer. Koutarou darted past Teddy, who stood calmly in the face of doom before putting his fist out and punching the boulder into tiny shards.

"Thanks, Teddy," Koutarou breathed, clutching his heart.

Teddy nodded before walking over. "Did you find the crystal?"

Koutarou pulled out his backpack and removed a glowing crystal tiki. "The Crystal of Boola Boola. No idea what anyone would want with it, though."

Teddy didn't answer, so Koutarou put the crystal back in his bag. "All right, if we start out now, we should be able to make it to the Great Pyramid by nightfall. I really don't want to have to stay out here in the jungle at night again."

"The tribble attacks have been especially violent lately," Teddy agreed.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kuroki stared.

"He was taking an archeology class," Jin explained.

"That's not archeology," Kuroki argued.

"And a Greeed and an Imajin both possessing a supposedly comatose cop who's stuck undercover at a dinosaur-and-elephant circus doesn't faze you in the least?"

"...Point."

"Anyway, back to the Idiot and Assbird Show."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where Ankh couldn't stand Chiyoko's cosplay, Momotaros was reveling in it, actively helping her pick out the coolest possible costume.

"Hmm," she noted, modeling red sequins against him. "We don't have enough of this for a full suit, but the sleeves could work."

"Yeah, and with some of that white shiny stuff too," he agreed.

"I've got plenty of that, and some scraps of black," she answered. "I can have straps hanging off your suit!"

Momotaros grinned, while Ankh grumbled in the background noise of their mind.

"So what's your act?" she asked.

"Eh?" Momo asked.

"Your act," Chiyoko asked again. "Mostly, Pretty/Strong is an acrobatics and strongman troupe. Yuuto and Hina are real power-types, and Deneb's not too shabby either. But Yuuto also does sharpshooting with Deneb, and Hina does gymnastics with our elephant."

"...What do you do?" Momotaros asked.

"Oh, I do the trapeze with the pterodactyl," she answered, oblivious to his shock. "It used to be a big hit, but now, audiences want to see more and more of the elephant. But maybe we'll be able to include her in your act! What do you do?"

"Uh, well..." Momotaros stammered.

_"Juggling,"_ came the oft-ignored voice at the back of their consciousness.

_"Eh? Who are you? Where'd you come from?"_ Momo asked.

_"I'm the guy whose body you both hijacked,"_ Shingo said.

_"Oi, why are you getting involved now?"_ Ankh complained.

_"Because you're both going to blow this if you don't give me control now,"_ Shingo argued. _"Momotaros, there's a ball, a sword, and a doll right next to you."_

Momotaros looked over to Chiyoko's dressing table and found said items.

_"Good. Ankh, set one of these things on fire."_

_"With pleasure,"_ Ankh said, setting fire to Maki's doll.

Then the Imajin and the Greeed moved aside and let Shingo do his thing. With both of them manifested on his arms, he could hardly feel the burning doll as it went from his hands to the air. Round and round the items went, with Ankh and Momotaros staring behind his eyes, mesmerized...until Maki ran in screaming and seized his doll from him.

Chiyoko applauded. "That was amazing, Shingo! Where did you learn to do that?"

Shingo bowed. "One of my instructors at the police academy had a friend who taught me to juggle. The fire is my own little trick, though."

"Hmm," she said. "Hina says you're not as strong as she is, so juggling the elephant is out of the question. How's your balance? Maybe you can stand on her trunk."

"I can perch like a bird," Shingo answered, taking way too much pleasure in the way Ankh sulked within his mind.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"All right, ready to go?" Jin asked when Kuroki had finished his snack.

"Bathroom first," Kuroki insisted.

"All right."

Jin followed him into the men's room and stood right next to him as he did his business. "So, back to Shiba House..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shinji and Eiji couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable as Tokuda brought them to Shiba House, and they knelt in waiting. It was very clear that tradition was important to this clan, and the two time-lost Riders stood out like a sore thumb.

"I wish Ren was here," Shinji whispered. "He at least lets me know when I'm messing things up."

"I know," Eiji agreed. "Where did he go?"

"Date asked him to run an errand for him," Tokuda answered easily. "Ryotarou went with him."

Eiji breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. I was worried Lord Retsudo might be mad when he saw him."

Shinji looked toward Eiji's bandages. "How's your shoulder?"

"It must be getting better," he answered with a smile. "It doesn't hurt anymore, at least. Date did good work." Tokuda nodded, but didn't say anything.

Fanfare sounded, along with drums. Shinji and Eiji looked up in surprise as attendants dressed from head-to-toe in black fluttered in, carrying a white banner with the Shiba crest. Lord Retsudo Shiba stood before it, and immediately, Tokuda bowed in respect, cueing Eiji and Shinji to do the same.

"Tokuda, there's no need to bow before me," Retsudo insisted.

"Always when I come to you for help," Tokuda said. "These two young men, Eiji and Shinji, are friends of mine who come from a very different place and time."

Retsudo nodded severely. "How bad a situation is this?"

"We're not sure," Tokuda insisted. "But others came with them, and we need to find them."

Retsudo glanced at the two Riders. "I have a feeling they will not be hard to find."

"Excuse me, Lord Retsudo," Eiji interrupted, bowing politely. "But we're worried some of them might have been adapted into this time and lived different lives. We've already met two like that so far."

"Asakura," Shinji explained. "He's a dangerous criminal in my time. And my friend Ren is your vassal."

Retsudo shot an accusing glance to Tokuda, who said, "I've really gotten us into it this time."

"If you were not who you are, I would have said the same thing." He sighed and knelt down, dismissing his kuroko. "Between Asakura's rampage and tracking down the thief, we've stretched ourselves thin."

"Oh, about that," Eiji said sheepishly. "I'm sorry for Ryotarou's behavior."

"Ryotarou?" Retsudo asked.

"Yes, the thief you've been looking for," Tokuda answered. "He was caught stealing bread, though I believe it was only out of necessity."

Retsudo stared at Tokuda. "What bread thief?"

Eiji and Shinji looked at each other. Things had just hit the fan.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wait, so it wasn't about the bread?" Kuroki asked as he washed his hands. "Then why were they chasing Ryotarou?"

"Mostly bad luck," Jin said with a grimace, handing him a paper towel and walking him back. "See, there were these ninjas, and everyone was already on high alert, so all they had to hear was that he was stealing SOMETHING, and he was up to his eyeballs in samurai." Kuroki gave him a blank, confused stare, and he sighed. "All right, you know, it makes more sense in context..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"We've had problems lately," Retsudo warned. "It's why we've been on such high alert."

"You never told me," Tokuda pointed out.

To Eiji and Shinji's surprise, Retsudo bowed to Tokuda. "Forgive me, but they were minor thefts by a small band of ninjas—something we normally could stop easily. However, these ninjas are unusually strong."

Eiji and Shinji shared a glance before Eiji asked, "Have you seen these ninjas?"

Retsudo shook his head. "My vassals have, though they dress entirely in black and are impossible to make out. They blend in easily with the kuroko. And before either of you asks, our kuroko would put their lives on the line to protect this clan. It's not them."

"What have they stolen?" Tokuda asked.

"Mostly gold or items that can be sold," Retsudo answered. "That's why I didn't contact you—if it's only been monetary items; all the secrets of the Shiba clan are safe, as were treasures of the shogunate—or so I thought."

"Did something happen to Eri—er, Lady Eri?" Shinji asked. When Eiji looked over in confusion, he explained, "I remember hearing that she's the shogun's niece here."

"Some of her jewelry was stolen," Retsudo explained. "Namely a ring passed down through generations of the Tokugawa clan."

To everyone's surprise, Shinji loudly groaned and facepalmed.

"Uh, Shinji?" Eiji asked.

"Ren has it," he groaned.

"What?" Tokuda asked.

"Akiyama Ren?" Retsudo added.

"He wouldn't have stolen it," Shinji insisted. "Eri probably gave it to him."

"But why?" Eiji asked.

Retsudo caught onto Shinji's meaning, however, and sighed. Tokuda had a smirk.

"You are far too amused at this, Tokuda," Retsudo groaned.

"They're young and in love," he replied, to which Eiji finally nodded in understanding. "I have no problem with it. I don't think the shogun would either."

Retsudo gave him a LOOK. "I'm sure."

"Eiji, we've got to find Ren before we find anyone else," Shinji insisted.

"Why is that?" Eiji asked.

"Because even he'd say that if I could figure this out, anyone else will."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"He's got a good point," Kuroki admitted as Jin fed Peanut.

"A very good point," Jin agreed. "And I'm glad he admitted it."

"So, ninjas?" Kuroki asked.

"Ninjas," Jin answered with a grin.


	6. Ninjas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm the only person in the world who doesn't flinch in pain when Hina hugs me or holds my hand. Even Ankh can't say that. I think I'll do just fine without him.

It was night by the time Chiyoko released the three-in-one Imajin-Greeed-cop from the costuming area, and once nobody was around to see, both Momotaros and Ankh were expelled from Shingo's body. Shingo stumbled immediately, unused to having control of his body back, and Momotaros quickly moved to help him.

"Whoa, you okay?" he checked.

"Yeah, it's just been a while," he answered, staring at Ankh's hand. "Just give me a moment to talk to Hina. I want to do it with my own voice."

If it was possible for a disembodied arm to huff, Ankh managed it, turning away. "Fine. Guess I can find another suitable body."

"I'm coming back," Shingo insisted, glaring. "I'd think after all the time we've spent together, you'd know that."

Momotaros stared awkwardly between the two of them before Shingo looked over at him and said, "You guys keep out of sight till I get back, okay? There are a couple of things I've needed to say to my sister."

"Right," Momotaros agreed before muttering, "Yeesh," as Shingo headed toward Hina's tent.

A bare handful of lanterns lit the way to the sleeping tents, but if Shingo had gained anything from Ankh, it was experience focusing his senses to adapt for change. Keeping his eyes away from the light made it easier to see...particularly to see the dark figure in the shadows near Hina's tent.

His stomach dropped immediately. "No. Hina!"

The figure turned as he heard his voice before promptly fleeing. Shingo only took a moment to check Hina's tent to see her missing before he broke into a wild, determined panic.

There is something to be said about older siblings. They may pick on their younger siblings. They may break promises. They may say or do things that hurt them. But if you do anything that even resembles harm to their siblings? Then you've breathed your last.

The smart thing to do would have been to call Ankh or Momotaros for help. Shingo wasn't planning on acting smart when Hina was potentially in danger. He took chase, following after the ninja as he joined two allies, scaling the side of one house and jumping to the rooftop of the next. Shingo easily made the climb, but he hesitated briefly at the gap between roofs. This gave a moment for one of the ninjas to turn and fire at him, forcing him to take cover.

"Where'd they get guns from?" he cursed, sounding and feeling a lot more like Ankh than himself. But that only proved he had to catch them _now_ , so he ran and leaped the distance, landing easily on the next rooftop with all that could be expected from the human host of the bird Greeed. The ninjas stepped up their game and ran faster, firing back at him more and throwing whatever they could to stop him. Shingo hardly let it slow him down, and he continued the chase all the way to Hikawa Shrine.

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"And you know what that means, right?" Jin asked with a wild grin.

Kuroki just stared blankly.

"...You're killing me here, Kurorin.  It means Asakura, okay?"

"Ah."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Samurai security was one of the best securities in the world. You always knew that something or someone was safe. Unfortunately, trying to get cleared by said security was a pain in the neck, and even after you showed the Shiba and Tokugawa crests and Date's credentials and vouched for the kid with you, you STILL had one of Lord Retsudo's retainers giving you the evil eye. It took forever before they were allowed to approach.

Within the shrine's ceremonial hall, Asakura was bound tight with blessed ropes tied to the very support pillars of the building, and he was covered from head to toe in ofuda that had completely paralyzed him. Despite being completely unable to move, when he saw Ren approaching him, he laughed.

"What do you know? Both disgraces to the shogun in the same place," he noticed.

"Where's your sword?" Ren demanded.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be tied up," Asakura taunted. "Maybe it's still in the rubble your Shiraishi buddies dropped on me."

"I'm not playing games!" Ren shouted, holding his own sword up to Asakura. "None of the guards could answer where it went, though they knew you still had it when they tied you up."

"We're here from Tokuda," Ryotarou added. "They'd respect him enough to tell us, if they knew."

"Respect's overrated," Asakura replied. "Battle is where the fun's at. If you really want to know where my sword is, ask the man in gold."

"What?" Ren asked, confused.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh, just to make it clear," Jin paused, "it's not the man in gold that you might be thinking of."

"...Odin?" Kuroki guessed.

"Well, actually, yeah, that's who it was," Jin answered. "I thought you were going to guess Shinken Gold." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, there goes the suspense now. Um, yeah. Odin's there. Or Imajin-Yummy-Odin, whatever you'd call that. Assbird's already taken, so yeah. Anyway..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Behind you!" Ryotarou shouted as a fast-moving blur of gold came at Ren's back.

It wasn't enough time for Ren to react, though. Just as he turned, a flurry of explosive feathers came at him, throwing him into a wall. Odin turned his attention to Asakura, and Ryotarou charged, pulling his weapon...

...Only for the bread to split against Odin's armor.

"Wrong weapon," Ryotarou moaned as Odin backhanded him out of the way.

Odin raised his hands to the ropes. They began to crumble into sand before disappearing into a black hole and becoming nothing.

"Nice trick," Asakura said. "Now how about these papers?"

As Odin reached for the ofuda, Ryotarou recovered and charged, this time using the sword. To his credit, he didn't completely fail—he managed to surprise Odin enough to back away. It was buying Ren enough time to recover and join him...until someone held him down and reached for the chain around his neck.

"Ren!" Ryotarou cried, swinging against Odin. Odin wasn't standing for that again and disappeared into sand before reforming behind him, hitting him again.

Ren struggled to fight against the ninja, but he was too strong. The ninja found the chain and yanked on it, breaking it easily. Ren glared in fury, but the ninja punched him in the face to distract him while he leapt up and ran off, ditching the cheap chain and tucking the ring into a pouch.

Odin attacked Ryotarou again, throwing him right through the wall, where another ninja was shooting at the samurai's feet. Nearby, a third ninja was battling Shingo in hand-to-hand.

Shingo had picked up a lot of fighting skills from Ankh, punching, grabbing, and throwing his opponent as much as he could. The ninja's wrists were small enough that he could guess she was probably female, and he put that to good use, trying to push her off-balance. A blow to the stomach forced her to back up away from him, where she saw the ring thief taking off.

"Stop him!" Ren ordered, staggering out of the shrine.

Shingo ignored his opponent and ran for the thief. Ryotarou caught up first, slashing at him with the reverse-blade sword. Weak though the boy was, he was determined, and for all the ninja tried to escape, Ryotarou wouldn't let him. As Shingo ran to help him, sand appeared in front of him before forming into Odin, who held out his staff.

"You're that Rider," he remembered. "The one who Maki threw a Medal in."

"Izumi Shingo," the triune being said, his voice distorted. "Without the Greeed's power, you have no hope of standing against me."

"Tch." Shingo curled the fingers on his right hand like claws before clenching them into a fist. "I'm the only person in the world who doesn't flinch in pain when Hina hugs me or holds my hand. Even Ankh can't say that. I think I'll do just fine without him."

Unimpressed, Odin teleported over toward him. But Shingo was ready, grabbing his arm to keep him from escaping and punched him in the side, where his armor was weaker. Odin tried to break free, but Shingo held him in a vice-like grip, pushing up on his chin. While Shingo held Odin still, Ren slashed at him with his sword. Odin broke free then and teleported in a flurry of feathers. Ren and Shingo kept their backs to one another, watching for his reappearance. He appeared above them, blasting down with nullifying energy. The two of them leapt out of the way, as the energy reduced the tiles they'd stood on to sand.

"What I wouldn't give for Ankh's fire right now," Shingo muttered.

Odin descended to the ground again and, recognizing that Ren had a sword, thus making him the bigger threat, charged him. He held him off with his Visor before pushing Ren aside. Ren attacked again, but Odin met his attack without effort. When Ren tried another attack, Odin swung at him, forcing Ren to block.

It was clear now that the ninjas were the least of anyone's worries, and Ryotarou abandoned his battle with the thief to help Ren. With absolutely no sense at all, Ryotarou ran in, striking Odin in the stomach with the blunt edge of the sword. Odin raised his Visor quickly, leaving a shallow cut across Ryotarou's face.

"Nogami Ryotarou," Odin said. "Singular point or not, you cannot defeat me without your Rider powers."

Ryotarou hesitated suddenly, surprised to be addressed as a Rider. It was enough time for Odin to attack again, but Shingo grabbed his arm before he could do no more than scratch Ryotarou's cheek, leaving a bloody X from the two cuts.

"Not everyone has to be a Rider to fight," he insisted, pulling Odin's arm behind him and giving Ryotarou and Ren the chance to strike. A blast of explosive feathers sent them flying backwards, and Odin whipped Shingo in front of him.

"You have done far better than I expected," he admitted. "But now, it's time to end this."

"I am _really_ sick of hearing about 'ends.'" Shingo grabbed Odin's Visor and tore it out of his hand before swinging it like a baseball bat at his head, forcing him to teleport back. He ran in to attack Odin again, but the Rider held out a hand, unleashing another storm of feathers.  Shingo braced himself behind the staff, but the attack went past him...

...And right to the shrine, bringing down the roof.

"No," Ren breathed.

Everything stopped. There was a flutter of papers in the wind as ofuda were torn free. Laughter sounded as Asakura walked out, his kimono hanging in tatters around him. He shrugged the top off entirely and stretched his neck.

"Now this is what I call a party," he said.

Now, the samurai turned their attention to the escaped ronin. Water, earth, air, and wood attacked him from the clans' mojikara, but Odin teleported over and blocked the elements before they could hit him. A warp appeared at Asakura's feet, with a sword forming out of sand. Odin teleported away, and Asakura grabbed the sword's hilt and pulled it free, allowing it to become solid.

Though Asakura was the most dangerous man who'd ever lifted a sword, that didn't stop any one of them from grabbing their swords and charging him. Even the ninjas tried to help, with the larger one shooting at him. But it wasn't enough, and Shingo soon found himself face-to-face with the sociopath. He met the poisoned blade with Odin's Visor, but his strength was giving out while Asakura ran on pure crazy. Already, his legs were buckling and his arms were burning.

That was when one of the ninjas grabbed Asakura from behind, pulling him off Shingo.

He could tell right away it was the female ninja, and the fact that any of them would help him left him utterly mystified. He wasn't sure what to do at first, but Ren shouted, "Grab his sword!"

Shingo snapped out of it and tried to wrest the katana out of Asakura's hand, but he wasn't having any of that. He pulled his head back and smacked right into the ninja's face, causing her to lose her grip. Shingo had to block with the Visor to avoid the blade. The ninja wasn't so lucky—Asakura spun around and cut across her stomach, drawing blood. More shots fired at Asakura, and the other two ninjas grabbed their companion and carried her to safety.

Everyone surrounded Asakura—the samurai, Ren, Ryotarou, and Shingo. The captains all held their calligraphy brushes, ready to attack. But Odin appeared once more, unleashing a wave of energy that tossed everyone aside...everyone except Shingo, that was. He alone stood among the unconscious warriors.

"Why me?" he asked, looking at Odin.

His answer came with a screeching sound in his mind, like nails against wet glass. A man appeared in the reflection of the fallen swords, and as Odin teleported himself and Asakura away, the man crossed over into our world.

"Who are you?" Shingo demanded.

"Very few people can hold their own against Odin," he said. "And none who are not Kamen Riders."

"I've had practice," Shingo answered.

"With the Greeed, Ankh," the man, Kanzaki, noticed. "Everything that Odin knows, I know. This time was different. You joined this battle, with no powers, all to protect your sister. There is nothing I respect more than that."

Shingo was distinctly getting the feeling he was dealing with a younger Maki, and he tightened his grip on the staff.

"I can give you the power to protect your sister," Kanzaki said. "The power of the Imajin and the Greeed has corrupted Odin. He no longer answers to me. But you have been host to both powers, with no ill effects."

"Sharing space with Ankh and Momotaros isn't exactly without consequence," Shingo argued.

"Their personalities would be rewritten in-line with the Odin programming," Kanzaki promised. "If all that you wish is to protect your sister, I can ensure you do so. All I ask is that you fight for me in the Rider War."

As Shingo was about to answer, he heard the sound of footsteps running toward the shrine. He turned to see a contingent of black-clad kuroko flanking a pair of samurai and two young men in modern clothing—one unfamiliar, and the other unmistakably Eiji.

"Ankh!" he shouted, unable to tell the difference from the distance.

"I think you know my answer," Shingo replied, glancing toward Kanzaki, but the man from the Mirror World was gone.

"Ankh!" Eiji cried again as they raced over.

Seeing all the unconscious samurai, Retsudo and the kuroko immediately began trying to wake his vassals. Shinji made a beeline toward Ren while Tokuda carefully covered Ryotarou's wound. Eiji ran over to Shingo before stopping short in shock.

"Shingo?"

Shingo smiled. "Good to talk to you again, Eiji."

The others were beginning to rouse while Eiji tried to get his brain to work. "How... What about Ankh?"

"I convinced him to let me have control for a little while. He's back with Momotaros."

"You found him?" Eiji breathed a sigh of relief.

"Not just him," Shingo answered. "Hina and Chiyoko too. And two people I think Momotaros knew—Yuuto and Deneb."

"Ren, are you okay?" Shinji asked once his friend had sat up, clutching his black eye.

Retsudo obtained ice from one of the kuroko and knelt next to Ren, handing him the ice.

"I've heard that you had the item we've been searching for all along," he said. Just as Ren realized what he meant, Retsudo explained, "All that means is the search is off. It's clear there was never any theft involved."

"Except maybe a stolen heart," Tokuda quipped. Retsudo just shot his friend a Look. The kind that says "I'd hit you right now, but we're in public."

"But now, it _has_ been stolen," Ren said. "By the same three ninjas who attacked us."

"What about Asakura?" Tokuda asked.

Ren couldn't answer. Instead, Ryotarou explained, "We couldn't get the sword. Another warrior freed him and fought us—I think he's the Odin you were talking about."

"Do you believe us now?" Shinji asked Ren. Ren could only nod.

"Should we meet up with the others?" Eiji asked.

"Not yet," Tokuda replied. "For now, we need to get back to Date's."

"We couldn't get the sword," Ryotarou warned.

As Tokuda looked grim, Eiji asked, "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry for not telling you before," Tokuda apologized, "but Date believes there was snake venom on Asakura's sword. I asked Ren and Ryotarou to retrieve it so he could make an antidote."

"Asakura's getting away!" Ryotarou reminded him. "We need to go after him!"

"Date can handle it..." Tokuda tried to explain, but Ryotarou had already run off.

"He has your sword, doesn't he?" Retsudo asked.

"I'm beginning to regret lending it to him," Tokuda admitted.

"Someone should go after him," Eiji insisted, starting after him.

"Wait," Shinji argued. "If there's poison in your wound, you need the doctor even worse than Ren does. I'll go after him."

" _I_ will go after him," said a voice suddenly.

"Who said that?" Eiji asked.

Everyone turned to see the door of a nearby building slide open, with the silhouette of a silver robot...who was promptly drop-kicked by a teenage girl.

"Jin was right about you," she complained. "You really DO get in the way all the time."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh no," Kuroki groaned.

"Oh yes," Jin answered with a wild grin. "THIS is where we come in."


	7. Where We Come In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why are you speaking in the third person?
> 
> Shut up, I'm narrating.

J was left on the ground while the girl walked over to everybody. "We'll take care of finding Ryotarou."

"I'm sorry," Eiji apologized. "Who are you?"

"I'm Kohana," she answered. "The robot is Beet J Stag, but everyone just calls him J."

J popped up in front of her suddenly, holding half of the loaf of bread Ryotarou had lost during the battle.

"The J stands for—"

Kohana punched him. "That's not important right now!" J went down without complaint.

"Thanks for helping," Shinji said, giving weird looks toward J, "but why would you do that for us?"

"Because Ryotarou's my friend and part of my family," Kohana insisted. "And even more importantly, he's..."

J popped up again, pulling the K-Taros out of the bread. "He is Kamen Rider Den-O."

Everyone stared, trying to puzzle together all of that. Then Kohana kicked J in the head.

"J! Stop popping up all the time!"

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kuroki was laughing by now.

"In the head."

"Yep," Jin said with a grin. "The kid's strong, I'll give you that. Though from what J said, she almost broke her foot on his head."

"We're not paying for that, are we?" Kuroki asked.

"Nah, she was fine," Jin insisted. "They stopped off at Date's before taking off after Ryotarou. He gave J strict instructions to let her ride piggyback on him until the pain stopped, and gave her strict orders to smack him with Retsudo's paper fan when he got on her nerves."

"Where'd the paper fan come from?"

"Oh, it's a Shiba thing. Hurts like hell too."

"So you just let him go with her?"

"Well..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kohana rubbed her forehead after Owner and Station Master gave her the rundown. Naomi offered her a cup of coffee, and she took it gratefully, sitting down next to Airi, Yui, and Gotou.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Right, forgot to mention," Jin interrupted himself, "All three of them were there too. Admittedly, they weren't quite erased from the timeline, but Station Master thought it was the best place for them, what with Airi needing to be around for Kohana to exist in the first place and Kanzaki going even crazier if anything happened to Yui."

"What about Gotou?"

"Well, Satonaka ended up on the train due to the timesplosion, and she said like hell she was going without her assistant. Also, Gotou was wearing a frilly apron."

"...Is that important?"

"No. Just thought I should mention it."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ryo-chan's lost his memories?" Airi asked. "I wonder if I should make him a special memory-restoring snack."

"I think he'll probably be fine," Gotou insisted, hiding a cringe from trying one of Airi's healthy snacks. "As long as Hino's with him, at least." She nodded.

"I'll make sure he remembers," Kohana said in a voice that promised pain.

After the more-than-slightly awkward silence that followed, Yui turned to Owner and Station Master and asked, "How can Oniichan's power affect him? Kohana said that she wasn't affected, and if Ryotarou's a singular point like her, why did he get affected and not her?"

All at once, everyone in the train who even knew OF Ryotarou or Koutarou Nogami chorused, "Bad luck."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kuroki gave Jin a funny, disbelieving look.

"Seriously," Jin insisted. "The worst."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"How can we fight Odin?" Gotou asked. "Maki alone is dangerous enough, and if he's managed to have one of his Yummys possess him..."

"And the Imajin," Kohana reminded him. "They're both possessing Odin. Or maybe the other way around."

"From everything Shinji and Ren told me about Odin, he's also got that power," Yui agreed. "The deck probably has a combined contract, a lot worse than just the Contract Monster."

"What we need is someone who can't be possessed," Station Master said easily, sipping his coffee.

"Like who?" Kohana asked.

The train came to a sudden halt.

"We have arrived," Owner noticed. "2012, Neo A.D. "

As Gotou prepared to disembark, Kohana stopped him. "If you step off one of the time trains, you'll be affected by the timesplosion too. I'm one of the only people who can go without being affected."

"It might be dangerous," Gotou warned. "You shouldn't go by yourself."

"Gotou," Satonaka said. He turned and just caught a henshin belt from her.

"This is..." he started in shock.

"It's just the prototype version of Birth," Satonaka insisted. "The President asked me to keep it if I ever needed to assist you and Date."

Gotou twitched. "Why didn't you?"

She shrugged. "I'm not being paid extra for it."

As Gotou fought the urge to scream at his boss, Kohana took the Proto-Birth Driver from him, insisting, "This should help. Thanks."

Satonaka just nodded, apparently disinterested as Kohana put on the belt and attached a Cell Medal dispenser to her wrist.

"Are you sure you'll be okay on your own?" Airi asked, worried about her future daughter's safety.

"I'll be fine," Kohana promised. "Do you think you guys can find ZeroLiner? Ryotarou's in trouble if the only one of the idiots he's got with him is Momo."

"We'll help you any way we can," Yui promised. "Just stop my brother."

"I will," Kohana insisted, stepping off the train.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wait, so..."

"Yeah, they left Airi, Yui, and Gotou with Ryutaros, Urataros, and Kintaros. Kintaros being the only one not flirting with or obsessed with any of them."

"What happened?"

"Well, it's a long story, but surprisingly not all that interesting. It mostly consisted of Gotou showing off photos he probably got from Decade and telling Urataros that Yui had a scary brother who was insanely protective."

"...I get the feeling it's not Kanzaki."

"No, he was talking about Ren. He wasn't going to risk scaring everyone out of helping by talking about Kanzaki."

"Right."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kohana stepped off the train and found herself right in the middle of a desert wasteland outside a domed city. All around were robot patrols, going after innocent people racing for the dome.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"WHAT?" Kuroki demanded.

"Yeah," Jin answered, rubbing his neck. "That was my reaction too."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Right behind Kohana came a voice shouting, "WHAT?"

She turned to see an avatar forming. The man, devastatingly genius and amazingly handsome, hadn't been there long enough for the timesplosion to affect him, and he stared at the domed city in horror.

"A nice change from Hyperspace," noticed his oblivious Buddyroid.

"J!" Jin yelled, smacking him in the head.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Why are you speaking in the third person?"

"Shut up, I'm narrating."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Damn it," Jin complained. "I'm gone thirteen years, and someone goes and breaks Earth! Nice job, Sakurada!"

"Excuse me?" Kohana asked, looking at them in confusion.

Jin threw the horns at her in a salute. "Jin Masato, genius engineer, at your service."

"And I am Beet J Stag!" J announced, standing in front of him. "The J stands for..."

"It's standing in front of me, that's what!" Jin growled, smacking him again. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Look, I've been stuck in a pocket dimension hellhole for the past thirteen years. You think you can tell me what's going on?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," she admitted. "But there's been a timesplosion—the whole timeline's out of whack."

"Well, I guess that'd explain that," Jin admitted. "So, what brings you to the middle of nowhere?"

"I was told that someone here could help me travel in time to undo this," she said. "Someone who can't be possessed, and who can't be affected by the timesplosion.."

"Damn," Jin muttered. "Here, I was thinking I'd surprise Kurorin and all, but..." He looked down at J, who was crawling in the sand, examining a beetle. "Oi, J!"

"Look!" J declared, picking up the bug. "I found a stag beetle. I will name him...Stag Beetle."

Kohana stared at Jin. "You've GOT to be kidding."

"'Fraid not," Jin said. "J, listen. This is important."

"I am listening."

Jin resisted the urge to smack him one more time, if only because he had to convince Kohana that J was in any way reliable. "J, make sure you take care of her. I can't go with you."

"Why not?" Kohana asked. "The timesplosion hasn't changed you!"

"That's because..." Jin started.

"That's because Jin's real body is still trapped in Hyperspace," J interrupted.

Jin winced and rubbed at the back of his neck as Kohana looked back at him. "Is that true?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "J acts as my marker, letting me project an avatar that lets me interact with the real world. But the moment he leaves this timeline, the signal will break off. Either my avatar will disappear, or I'll be integrated into the timey-wimey."

"I am originally from Hyperspace, so I will not be affected," J added.

"See?" Jin asked. "So make sure you take care of her. You hear?"

"I hear," J replied.

A whistle sounded, and ZeroLiner appeared, stopping in front of them. Without getting off the train, Gotou cried from the door, "Hope we're not too late. It was harder than we expected." Behind him was a cry of "Oneechan!" from Ryutaros, and Gotou winced.

"Well?" Jin asked. "You guys ready?"

"Ready, go!" J insisted, dashing for the train.

"Wait!" Kohana cried.

Jin sighed. "Yeah, don't let him get in front of you. Just smack him a little, and he'll learn."

Kohana looked around at the robot apocalypse around them. "Are you sure you'll be okay here? We might be able to keep you on ZeroLiner."

Jin threw up the horns. "I'll be fine. Now if you'll excuse me..." And he adjusted a Stetson that suddenly appeared on his head. "I've got a Vaglass Barricade to run."

Before Kohana could even ask what the hell was going on, Jin ran toward the robots chasing innocent civilians, drawing their attention and leading them into a death trap around the domed city.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kuroki stared in silence.

Jin beamed. "I was a cowboy."

More staring.

"Also, I totally ran the Vaglass Barricade, but some asshole in a beat-up black car got all the credit."

Kuroki sighed.


	8. Suspicions, Samurai, and the Circus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like some kind of super samurai.
> 
> That's stupid.
> 
> Hey, it happened, and it was more awesome than you think.

They regrouped at Date's, where he quickly wrapped up Kohana's foot and sent her on her way, piggyback on J, to retrieve Ryotarou. As Ren iced his face and Eiji rubbed at his arm, Shingo laid out the Visor for everyone to see.

And for Shinji to gape at.

"How did you get that away from Odin?" he asked in shock.

"A lot of pulling," Shingo admitted. "I don't think he expected someone who wasn't a Rider to actually stand up to him."

"You should be more careful, though," Shinji warned. "He's the strongest of all the Riders. You were lucky you didn't get killed."

Shingo was grim at this, and Eiji offered him a smile. "I know you were trying to help. And thanks. But make sure you don't get hurt. You don't want Hina to cry."

"Right," Shingo agreed with a nod.

"This is what Odin used to turn back time, right?" Eiji asked. "How does it work?"

Shinji pointed out the card reader. "He put his Time Vent card in here. When it's scanned, it's supposed to reset time to whenever Odin—or Kanzaki, his handler—wants."

"Looks like it's jammed," Shingo noticed, trying to pry it open.

Shinji gave a nervous laugh. "I might've tackled Odin to try to stop him."

As Shingo and Eiji stared at Shinji for a minute, Date picked up the Visor and started swinging it like a baseball bat.

"So this little thing made all that trouble. Wonder if there's a way to use this to reverse it."

Ren caught the Visor before it could hit him and took it out of Date's hands. "It won't be easy. Especially with Odin able to dissolve things the way he did."

"That's from the Yummy's power," Eiji explained. "Maki's Yummys all have the ability to reduce things to nothingness or destroy intangible things, like dreams."

"He may be more dangerous than Gara was," Tokuda admitted. "Possibly more than both him and the Gedoushu combined."

Retsudo rubbed his temples. "I don't even want to consider that possibility."

"I need to get back and find Hina," Shingo insisted.

"Is she okay?" Eiji asked.

"I don't know," Shingo admitted. "I went to her tent, but the ninjas were there instead."

He went silent, mulling over the troubling possibilities, but Eiji affirmed, "She'll be okay. She knows how to take care of herself, and there's no way she'd get hurt when she knows you're worrying about her."

Shingo nodded. "I'll take the Visor with me, though."

"Shouldn't we keep it with Lord Retsudo?" Shinji asked.

"Maki's there," Shingo warned, and Eiji paled. "He might sense Ankh already, so hopefully, Momotaros is hiding him. But I don't want to take that chance. I'd rather have some kind of defense."

"One of us will go with you," Tokuda insisted.

"Not Eiji," Shingo argued. With a look toward his friend, he said, "We can't risk Maki sensing your Medals. And with your injury, he might have an easier time getting control of you."

"I know," Eiji agreed. "I'll stay back and help figure out a way to fix this."

"Guess I might as well go," Date decided, shouldering his jug full of medical supplies.

"Wait, don't you need to help Eiji?" Shinji asked.

"Unfortunately, there's not much I can do until Ryotarou, Kohana, and Stag-chan get back with Asakura's sword," he answered. "But I shouldn't have too hard a job making an antidote on the road."

"Then can you keep an eye on Eiji?" Shingo asked Shinji. "At least until we've got the antidote."

"Right," Shinji agreed. "You can count on me!"

Date patted his gorilla secretary on the back. "Let everyone know I'm not taking any more patients for a bit, okay?" The gorilla grunted. "Good. Now, to the circus!"

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jin stopped, grinning.

Kuroki blinked in confusion.

"I know something you don't know."

A pause for logic to kick in. "You're telling the story. Of COURSE you know something I don't."

"True," Jin admitted. "But did anything about that last exchange strike you as a little weird?"

"Weirder than Date giving orders to a gorilla?"

"Then I'll let Ren explain it."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ren had always been quiet and distrusting, and as Shingo and Date left, he watched their departure suspiciously.

Without drawing attention to him, Retsudo walked over to him.

"Is something the matter?"

Ren looked at him in surprise, then averted  his gaze to the floor.

"It's not my place," he answered in the typical manner of a lowly vassal.

"It is," Retsudo insisted. "No lord can rule fairly without listening to his people. And for that matter, you too are one of these Kamen Riders, not a samurai's vassal. Your rank is equivalent to mine or the rest of the Samurai Sentai. You have more right than any to speak your mind freely."

It took a moment for Ren to nod, struggling between the behaviors he'd adopted from the timesplosion and his true personality. Checking to be sure that Tokuda and Shinji had taken Eiji well out of earshot, he quietly said, "Doesn't it seem strange he told both of the Riders to stay here?"

The implications hit Retsudo at once, and he stared grimly in the direction Shingo and Date had left. "While taking Odin's weapon for himself."

"He was the only one still conscious when we were attacked," Ren added. "And the only one who hadn't been injured."

"You think he's connected to Odin," Retsudo realized.

"I can't..." Ren shook his head, trying to remember his true self. "Yes. Somehow. And that's the real reason he doesn't want anyone else with him, especially not a Rider who knows how that weapon works."

"He'll try to lose Date, then," Retsudo surmised. "Shadow him, but keep out of sight. Let us know if you need backup."

Ren started to bow, but at the last second, changed it to an awkward nod before he ran off.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Did Shingo lose Date?" Kuroki asked.

"Getting ahead of yourself again, Kurorin," Jin warned. "Yes, he did, but he didn't plan on it. At least, not this way. See, things were pretty chaotic when they got back to the circus..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I love the circus," Date said with a grin, looking around at the people running around. "Lively people, always doing something."

To Date, it might have looked like business as usual, but Shingo was a cop. His trained eye picked up on the panic. He didn't even bother to consider that it might be the ninjas from earlier—something had made him suspicious, and he wanted to ask Momotaros about Deneb—partially for confirmation of his suspicions and partially to ditch him on a cold trail. But cold fear ran through his veins when he saw Chiyoko run toward Hina's tent.

"Chiyoko!" he shouted, running over.

"Shingo!" she cried in surprise.

"What happened?" he asked. "Is Hina okay?"

"There was an accident," she explained. "She got cut—I think it's infected."

"Ma'am," Date said, stepping forward. "I'm a doctor. I can look at her."

"Thank you," Chiyoko answered, opening the flap to Hina's tent.

Hina was lying on a futon, just dressed in a yukata and writhing in pain. There were bruises forming on her face, like she'd been hit by something, but she'd clearly cleaned herself up.

"I shooed the other boys out, but for a doctor and family, it's all right," Chiyoko said. "Hina, the doctor's here."

"Oniichan," she whispered, seeing Shingo.

Wordlessly, Shingo sat down by his sister and held her hand.

Date checked her face for a moment, and when Chiyoko said the cut was on her body, he asked Hina to let him open her yukata to check.

"Looks like just a scratch," he said. "You said it got infected?"

Hina nodded weakly. "It started burning right away."

Without another word, Date cleaned the wound and dressed it. "I've seen this kind of thing before. The pain's going to go away, but everything's going to be numb. It's got a paralytic action, but it takes time for it to take effect. It's going to start off with the worst pain you can imagine." He looked over at Chiyoko. "Make sure someone's with her at all times. I'm working on an antidote, but until it's done, she needs someone to make sure she's still breathing." He got up, leaving several of his supplies for Chiyoko to administer, and started to usher Shingo out.

"Oniichan," Hina insisted, clinging to her brother's hand.

"I'll be back," he promised. "The doctor just wants to talk to me for a moment." Only then did she nod.

Date and Shingo left the tent, and Shingo led him to the costume tent, where Momotaros had hidden in a pose, pretending to be a full-body costume.

"Come on out," Shingo instructed. "Date's a friend of ours."

"Gah, about time you came back!" Momotaros complained, trying to relax. "I'm all stiff from posing like that!"

"You're friends with an oni?" Date asked in surprise.

Just as Momotaros started to get offended, Shingo asked, "Where's Ankh?"

"Oh, that Maki guy showed up by the tent again," Momotaros explained. "The hand decided he was going to move so he couldn't sense him, or something like that."

Shingo sighed. "We haven't had anything resembling the end of the world happen yet, so he's probably doing fine. Momotaros, did Chiyoko finish that costume?"

"Yeah, it's right here," Momo said, pulling it off the rack. The body of it was white and shiny, with bold red sleeves covered in sequins, and black straps were sewn in and hanging off in different spots. "She said she'd let your sister put on the finishing touches, though."

"Much as I love a good circus, this really isn't the time to be worrying about costumes," Date pointed out.

"Where'd she get the black fabric from?" Shingo asked.

"Ah, here," Momotaros said, picking up the last scraps of the black. Shingo picked it up immediately and examined it closely.

"There was a black costume Hina was mending earlier. What happened to it?"

"I think she took it with her," Momotaros confessed.

"Date, I need you to get that costume out of my sister's tent," Shingo insisted. "I don't care what you tell Chiyoko to get it."

"Oi, Shingo!" Date interrupted. "There's no time to waste on this. Your sister..."

"Was poisoned, not infected," he replied. "Just get the costume, and I think it'll confirm our suspicions."

Now, at this time, it sounded to Ren like the perfect time to warn the good doctor. Unfortunately, as it turns out, Ankh hadn't strayed far from the area. The moment Maki had left, he headed back to make sure Momotaros wasn't doing something stupid and that Shingo was coming back and definitely not ditching him—never let it be said that Ankh is too trusting.

So what does a suspicious demonic hand do when he sees a suspicious-looking guy with a sword right outside the tent where one of his "useful idiots" is?

He blasts a fireball at him and sends him flying, of course.

Shingo didn't know just who Ankh was attacking out there, but he knew that it couldn't be good for him either way.

"Oi, Assbird, what are you doing out there!" Momotaros shouted, rushing out to join the fight.

"Probably one of the ninjas," Shingo guessed. "Date, get the costume, fast!"

"Right!" Date agreed.

He sprinted off first, and Ren recognized him immediately by the giant sake jar.

"Stop!" he shouted, but the next thing he knew, Momotaros crossed swords with him.

"How 'bout YOU stop?" Momo argued, managing to throw him back. He then raised his arms in excitement. "I thought I was NEVER gonna get another good fight in!"

This, of course, left him open for Ren to strike him across the stomach, prompting Ankh to yell, "Idiot! Focus on the battle!"

Another fireball from Ankh sent Ren scrambling for cover behind a large cooking pot. Knowing he didn't have time to waste fighting these guys, he struck the pot with his sword, creating a horrible, echoing noise that dropped the both of them.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"How?" a confused Kuroki interrupted.

"Well, I'm not completely sure," Jin admitted. "See, the timesplosion messed with everyone's powers, right? So it looks like some of their powers got adapted into normal skills. Like Asakura's sword suddenly being poisonous, and Ren's sword basically letting him use Nasty Vent. Like some kind of super samurai."

There was a pause.

"That's stupid," Kuroki decided.

"Hey, it happened, and it was more awesome than you think," Jin insisted.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With Momotaros and Ankh down, Ren came out from behind cover to try to find Shingo, but Shingo had found him first. Ren didn't have time to defend himself before Shingo swung the Visor like a baseball bat right at his head, knocking him out.

"He's down," Shingo warned, "but get that sword away from him!"

Momotaros picked up the fallen katana, looked at it briefly and decided, "Mine's cooler," but he kept it all the same.

"Where were you?" Ankh accused.

"What was I going to do?" Shingo argued. "I don't know how to use a sword, and it's not like they've got guns around here!"

"What's going on?" Yuuto demanded, storming outside with Deneb. "Can't a guy get some sleep without all this ringing and shouting and..."

Awkward silence fell harder than Ryotarou tripping over his own feet. After all, what do you do when you see your new juggler holding a weird staff over an unconscious samurai, and surrounded by a floating monstrous hand and an Imajin with two swords?

Shingo was becoming adept at lying now, so he picked up the unconscious Ren and said, "My friends and I found him prowling around here. I don't know who he is or what he wants, but we need to keep him tied up until I can question him."

Yuuto gave him a look that said he clearly wasn't buying any of it, so Shingo added, "Hina told you I'm a cop, right? I didn't want to tell her, but I'm investigating something going on. Something involving an escaped criminal samurai. This guy was there when he escaped. I saw him fighting the escapee, but it looked like there was also a contingent of ninjas involved. So this case is getting a lot more complicated, and I need to figure out what's going on."

"Of course!" Deneb insisted. "Yuuto will cooperate any way he can!"

Yuuto gave his partner a look that promised pain, but what could he do in front of a confirmed police officer?

"Come on this way," he agreed reluctantly. "You can keep him in our tent. We've got some weightlifting equipment you can tie him to."

"Thank you," Shingo replied. "I appreciate it."

Yuuto and Deneb led the group to their tent, where Shingo wasted no time in tying up Ren and securing him to a pair of 100 kg weights that he just _knew_ Hina regularly lifted.

"Does anyone have anything to gag him with?" Shingo asked. "If he's involved in this, I don't want his accomplices to find him easily."

Ankh found a black costume before Yuuto had the chance to hide it. The look of horror on his face was obvious, but Shingo pretended to ignore it.

"Thanks. With any luck, this will all be done before the performance, and I can wash it for you by then."

Yuuto had to hold his tongue. "Thanks."

"No, thank you," Shingo replied. "And please don't tell Hina about this. I don't want her to worry about more than she has to."

"Of course," Deneb agreed.

"I'll probably be spending most of my time with her or trying to help the doctor who's treating her," he added. "Could I have one of you guard him until I have a chance to interrogate him?"

"Yeah," Yuuto answered. "Deneb will do it." When Deneb was about to protest, Yuuto gave him a glare and said, "Of course you will, right?"

"R-right," Deneb agreed nervously before looking at their prisoner. Something about the bruise already on his face seemed uncomfortably familiar, and he didn't want to be there when the samurai woke up.

Meanwhile, Date rushed back to the site of the battle, shouting, "I got the costume back, just like you said!"

But the area was completely empty.

"...Shingo? Oni? Hand?"

A pause.

"Guess I might as well enjoy the circus!"


	9. Re:Birth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stop acting like Stupid Momo!

Jin stopped himself for a moment and looked at Kuroki critically.

"What?" Kuroki asked.

Jin picked up the phone. "Morishita? This is Jin. Kurorin's gonna have to call in sick today and probably tomorrow. He's got his head in the toilet right now."

"No, I..."

"Yes, you do," Jin insisted firmly. "He doesn't like it, but he's got to go home now. All right, thanks. Love you, bye."

"Do you flirt with everybody on staff?" Kuroki asked.

"Only the cute ones," Jin answered. "Which is everyone. Just about, at least."

"You're gonna..."

"Get hit with sexual harassment complaints from Internal Affairs?" Jin guessed. "First off, everyone knows I'm kidding. I make sure of that. Remember the time Nakamura was blushing so bad Hiromu thought she was choking? After rescuing her from J trying to give the Heimlich maneuver, I sat her down and told her I was just kidding and if it made her uncomfortable, I'd stop. And second, I don't technically WORK here anymore. Otherwise, I'd have a lot more complaints about how much I'm getting paid."

It took Kuroki a minute to catch on.  "We don't pay you."

"Exactly," Jin answered with a grin. "Now, c'mon. We need to make a detour before we get you home."

"Where?" Kuroki asked.

But Jin had patted Peanut on the trunk. "See you in a little bit, Peanut. Kurorin, c'mon! Or do I have to hold your hand all the way?"

When Kuroki almost crashed right into the huge elephant, Jin DID in fact, have to hold his hand the whole way.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ryotarou finally had to stop and catch his breath. Asakura had way too much of a lead on him, and he couldn't catch up now. Not to mention right after he'd tripped and fallen off a roof, landing on an open umbrella.

"It's just like when I first started," he panted.

Well, that was weird. Started WHAT, exactly?

Odin had called him a singular point and said he had Rider powers. While he still had no idea what the first meant, the second had to mean he was the same as Shinji and Eiji.

"But all of the Riders that were there are accounted for," he tried to tell himself. "Date, Ren, and Asakura were farther from the timesplosion. And the others, like Lady Eri and whoever Hina and Ankh are, were just spread out."

And yet that didn't make sense to him either. Something about the name "Den-O" had meant something to him.

"But Momotaros was Den-O," he reminded himself.

And yet, not quite. And he could vaguely remember telling someone, "I have to go after him."

"This happened before," Ryotarou realized all of a sudden. "I forgot him before."

As he was mulling this thought over, something screeched overhead. He looked up and saw a pink pterodactyl swooping toward him.

Naturally, he screamed, ran, and fell flat on his face.

As he braced himself for a sudden, messy death, he heard a teenage girl's shout of fury before something started shooting. He managed to look up to see Kohana firing the Birth Buster one-handed with ZERO regard for the recoil.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, RYOTAROU?!" she shouted. "HENSHIN!"

"Eh?" he asked in confusion.

She groaned in frustration, then plucked a Cell Medal from the holder on her wrist. "Like this. Henshin!"

She flipped the coin in the air, then inserted it in the Proto-Birth Driver's slot. There was a popping sound as she turned the knob, and the next thing Ryotarou knew, he was looking at Kamen Rider Birth-Prototype. She continued to fire on the pterodactyl, which swooped over toward her and knocked the blaster out of her hands.

"J, IF THERE'S EVER A GOOD TIME TO STAND IN FRONT OF ME, THIS IS IT!" she screamed.

"Roger," J responded, holding up a pair of Morphin Blasters, which promptly chorused, [IT'S MORPHIN TIME!] At which point J stopped and stared at them.

"What is it THIS time?" Kohana asked, switching to Crane Arm and punching the pterodactyl off of her.

"I forgot to give Jin his Morphin Blaster before I left."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Borrowing Kuroki's wallet again, Jin paid for some tickets and led him to the train.

"So yeah, thanks to J, I had to run the Vaglass Barricade without morphing."

"How did that go?" Kuroki asked, being gently eased into a seat.

"Well..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jin led the refugees through the city's dome, right to security. After a brief scan, everyone was good to go, except for the two in the car who'd made it there faster—they were being taken into custody while a trio of youths in bright red, yellow, and blue—well, it's not spandex, but you know what I mean—watched on.

Jin laughed and fixed his hat. "At least I didn't get busted for speeding."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So, pretty good, all things considered," Jin admitted.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"J!" Kohana shouted.

"Let's morphin!" J cried, completing the morph.

He charged in, tackling the pterodactyl and getting it away from Kohana as she recovered the Birth Buster and started shooting at it again. Ryotarou had watched for a moment, completely at a loss for what to do. But when the pterodactyl recovered and tried to counterattack, he ran in, hitting it as hard as he could with the reverse-blade sword.

"Do you remember now?" Kohana asked.

"Remember what?" Ryotarou asked, hitting the dinosaur solidly in the mouth. "There are time distortions and Riders, and there's still a ronin on the loose who hurt a friend of mine!"

By now, Kohana had had it, and really, who could blame her? Time had been blown up, the Imajin had been stuck on ZeroLiner, Momotaros was somewhere out here without much in the way of supervision, she was babysitting J, and Ryotarou had lost his memory _again_.

So, really Kurorin, could anyone blame her for punching him in the stomach and screaming, "Stop acting like Stupid Momo!"

Ryotarou went flying, and J just managed to catch him. He just kind of hung there limply for a while, winded—honestly, those Nogamis are surprisingly tough despite their bad luck, and it takes a lot more than a Rider Punch to traumatically injure them.

And sometimes, a little familiar violence is all it takes for the memories to go back into place.

"Hana?" Ryotarou asked finally.

"Finally!" Kohana sighed. "Do you remember now?"

He winced and tried to stand up as J let him go. "I think so. I went after Momotaros just before the timesplosion—Momotaros!"

"We'll find him soon enough," Kohana promised, handing him the K-Taros. "In the meantime..."

"I don't have the belt or pass," Ryotarou reminded her. "Momotaros does."

"And knowing him, he's in the middle of something," Kohana groaned.

"Try this," J insisted, handing over the other Morphin Blaster.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Did..." Kuroki started.

"No," Jin answered. "It would have been awesome, but no. Kohana didn't want to cause any more damage to the timeline."

"Ah."

"Plus, he REALLY would have hurt himself."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"All right," Ryotarou decided, pressing a button on the K-Taros.

[RYU]

There was a flash of purple light, and the next thing they knew, a purple streak had appeared in Ryotarou's hair and a hat covered his head.

"Ryotarou!" Ryuta cheered, his purple eyes glowing happily as he jumped around in circles. "You're back!"

_"Sorry I worried you all,"_ Ryotarou apologized.

"No more acting like Stupid Momo!" Ryutaros scolded.

Underneath her helmet, Kohana had to smile. "You said it, Ryuta."

_"So, let's go?"_

"Yeah!" Ryuta agreed, looking over at the pterodactyl. "Hey, mind if I kick your butt?" Before the dinosaur could so much as screech, he'd fired the Morphin Blaster. "Can't hear ya!"

"Neither can I," Kohana agreed, readying the Birth Buster again.

"Nor I," added J, who got right in their line of fire.

"J, if you don't move right  now, I'm going to..." Kohana warned, but Ryuta jumped onto his back.

"Yay, piggyback ride!" he cried, shooting at the pterodactyl.

"I am not giving out rides," J insisted, but he still kept a hold on Ryuta while firing off his own Morphin Blaster.

"Keep it distracted just like that!" Kohana shouted as she changed out the Medal cartridge on the Birth Buster. Seeing the next could fit on the front of the weapon, she loaded it and aimed.

[CELL BURST]

The recoil this time was enough to force her to take a step back. The shot hit the pterodactyl head on, and it exploded into sand, with one Cell Medal falling to the ground and breaking.

"Hey, hey, it's like an Imajin!" Ryuta noticed.

"I am covered in sand," J said. "I did not realize weather in this world would be so strange."

Kohana took off the belt, dropping the henshin as she walked over to examine the remains of the Medal. "It looks like the same kind I'm using. But Imajin shouldn't use Medals, and it still looked pretty real."

_"Maybe it's a hybrid of the two?"_ Ryotarou suggested. _"From the timesplosion?"_

"It might be," Kohana said. "Which would mean it's also a hybrid of a Mirror Monster. But there aren't any mirrors around here for it to come out of, or J would probably be looking at himself."

_"Ryutaros?"_ Ryotarou asked. _"I'll meet up with all of you later. Right now, I want to help Hana find this."_

"Mm, okay," Ryutaros finally agreed before leaving his body and returning to ZeroLiner.

Ryotarou got off J's back and knelt by Kohana. "The only thing reflective around was Tokuda's sword, but I definitely would have noticed if it came from there. Maybe they're being kept somewhere else?"

"Perhaps there is a circus nearby," J suggested.

Kohana pulled out her paper fan, but Ryotarou quickly stopped her from hitting him.

"No, he's right," he answered. "There _is_ a circus in town. I remember that. I wonder if that's where Momotaros, Deneb, and Yuuto are. Shingo said that he left them somewhere with a friend of his, Ankh."

Kohana stood up and winced as she shifted her weight off her foot. "It's worth checking out, if only for finding them."

Ryotarou looked at her bandaged foot. "Are you sure you'll be able to walk all that way?"

"I found a horse," J insisted.

In disbelief, the teens turned toward him, where sure enough, there was a horse tethered to a small fence, with a hawk and a grasshopper on its head. A sign on the fence read "Ride Vendor," with a slot for a Cell Medal.

Kohana took a Medal out of her holder and inserted it in the slot, releasing the horse's reins. "That's convenient."

Ryotarou noticed a small recording device on the grasshopper and picked it up. "I think this can let us send a message back to Eiji and Shinji." Looking over at the hawk, he asked, "Do you think you can find them for us?" The hawk appeared to nod.

As Ryotarou recorded his message, J prepared to mount the horse, but Kohana hit him with the fan.

"You're riding behind us, got it?"

"All right," Ryotarou said, sending the hawk and grasshopper off. "Are we ready?"

Kohana and J were on the horse now, with enough room for Ryotarou between them. They reached down their hands to help him up with the least chance for him slipping and falling.

"Ready, go!" J cried.

The horse took that as a suggestion and took off with Ryotarou still clinging to their hands.


	10. Famous Last Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peanut's here?
> 
> Hey, I'm a genius. Of course she's here.

Jin quickly moved a paper bag in front of Kuroki's face as a jolt from the train made him nauseous.

"Wow, you really can't handle your liquor anymore," he noticed. "Then again, I might remember our schooldays differently."

Springing to his feet, Jin looked around at the commuters. "Well, if I've got an audience, I might as well continue the story. All right, so Eiji was doing all he could to try to hide how bad his injury had gotten..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was bad enough that he'd lost all feeling in his arm, and the numb sensation was spreading. The Medals inside him were reacting, trying to transform him now in his more weakened state, but he fought them off as best as he could. Still, he was in a cold sweat, and everyone could tell that the venom was taking its toll.

"How about you go by the door?" Shinji suggested, practically pulling him over toward a cool breeze.

"Thanks," Eiji answered, even though it wasn't helping. His body was too cold, and he couldn't tell if it was the venom or his Medals.

Shinji watched him helplessly, desperate to help. In the Rider battle, he'd seen too many people die, some of them friends or people who he thought could have been his friends if they hadn't been Riders. Eiji was a Rider who seemed like an ideal for him—still fighting for what he wanted, but without having to battle other Riders for it. The best of all possible worlds.

In that instant, Shinji had decided that there was no way he was going to let Eiji die, and he'd do whatever it took to try to help him.

The sound of a hawk screeching was enough to make him jump up, deck in hand, ready for an attack. But Eiji recognized the sound and said, "No, I think it's on our side."

Ryotarou's hawk landed on the floor, and a chirping grasshopper jumped into Shinji's hands. "What..."

"It's a message," Eiji answered easily, used to the same thing but mechanical. Using his good hand, he activated the recorder on the grasshopper's back.

_"Eiji, Shinji, it's Ryotarou. I lost Asakura, but I got my memories of being a Rider back, and Hana, J, and I are trying to track down something at a circus. We think that there are creatures combined of all three of our monsters somewhere there. We'll see if any more of our friends are there too to help us find Asakura. We won't give up."_

"Brave young man," Tokuda noticed, listening in.

"Yeah," Eiji agreed. "I'm glad he remembers everything now. Something about him had definitely seemed too noble for a street kid." As he struggled to stand up, both Tokuda and Shinji tried to help him, but he insisted, "I'm fine. I really am feeling a lot better than I was a few minutes ago. I guess the fresh air helped, but right now, I'm a little cold." He closed the door.

"Should we hold onto these guys?" Shinji asked, trying not to get pecked by the hawk.

"I think so," Eiji answered. "They can at least help us stay in contact with the others, since we're all separated right now." Hiding a wince, he said, "Maybe we should let Shingo and Date know that Ryotarou's going to meet up with them."

"Ren too, wherever he went," Shinji added.

Before Tokuda could tell them that was a bad idea for reasons Retsudo didn't want to share right now, the door opened again, and Yui leaned out from ZeroLiner.

"Don't, Shinji-kun," she warned. "You might put him in danger. We'll explain everything once you're on board."

"Yui-chan!" Shinji cried in surprise.

"She's not the only one," Gotou insisted, looking through the door. "Hino, are you okay?"

Eiji smiled at his friend. "I'm fine, Gotou. Though I might need help getting on the train."

Gotou reached his hand out to help Eiji board while Shinji made sure he was fine from behind. Once they were both aboard, Shinji turned back to Tokuda.

"Wait, aren't you coming?"

Tokuda shook his head with a smile. "My ancestors left a warning never to get involved with time trains, after an incident back in Tokugawa Ieyasu's reign."

Shinji looked confused for a moment, but he still nodded before closing the door. But once he turned around, he thought he understood why Tokuda was so reluctant. Ryutaros was clinging to Airi and shooting angry glares at Urataros, who'd decided to play with a plastic fishing pole, dangling it in front of the face of a sleeping Kintaros. All throughout this, Gotou seemed perfectly calm as he talked to Eiji and made sure he was all right.

"Shinji-kun, what's wrong?" Yui asked.

"Ah, nothing," he answered. "I think I just understood what Ren feels like rooming with me."

She couldn't exactly hide her smile. "It's been a chaotic trip, but not all bad."

"Really?" Shinji asked.

But before she had the chance to explain, Airi called out, "I have snacks!" and set out a plate of sandwiches on one of the few tables in the train.

"Yay!" Ryutaros cheered, grabbing two sandwiches quickly. "These are yummy, Oneechan!"

As both Shinji and Eiji tried to figure out just why he'd called her his sister, Airi explained, "I'm sorry this is all I could make. I think Sakurai-kun must have kicked Deneb out of the kitchen for a while. All I could find were peanut butter, jelly, and bread."

"Thank you anyway," Yui said with a polite bow.

Eiji and Shinji were still staring, this weird even for them, so Gotou advised, "Just don't try and make sense of any of this. It works better that way." They nodded.

Once everyone had grabbed a snack and sat down, Airi explained, "Ryuta-chan says that he managed to contact Ryo-chan."

"Yeah!" Ryutaros piped up. "He was acting all stupid like Momo, but Kohana got him listening again! And there was this stag beetle robot with them too who turned into a silver Super Sentai! Oneechan, can I be a Sentai too?"

Eiji leaned over to Gotou. "I see what you mean."

"We got a message from Ryotarou," Shinji said, pointing to the hawk and grasshopper. "He said he was going to check something out at the circus. And Yui-chan said not to let the others know he was going to meet them?"

"Right," Yui explained. "We can't step off the train, but we can still make a few stops to check things out. Ren's been trying to follow Shingo and keep an eye on him. He doesn't trust him."

"But why not?" Eiji asked. "I might not know him that well, but from everything Hina's told me, he's as good as they come. And he tried to help fight when the two of us first saw a Yummy."

Yui looked at Shinji. "Shingo has a younger sister, one at the circus."

When Shinji's eyes widened in understanding, Eiji asked, "And that means?"

"An older brother would do anything to protect his younger sister," he answered grimly.

"And with Odin's Visor, he might have the power to," Gotou added. "We think Kanzaki might have contacted him, but Yui can't contact him at all."

"So I just know Oniichan's up to something," she insisted. "You have to stop him."

"There's not much we can do while we're stuck on this train," Gotou said. "But we can try to keep tabs on everyone."

"Can you get us to the circus?" Shinji asked.

"I think so," Gotou answered. "The controls are a bike." When he saw Eiji trying to ask again, he added, "Don't even try."

"Right," Eiji remembered.

"And can you bring these to Ryo-chan when you see him?" Airi asked, handing him a small, wrapped package of sandwiches. "I think he and Kohana-chan will probably be hungry after all that."

As Eiji struggled to tuck the package under his paralyzed arm, Gotou insisted, "Trust me, the train being controlled by a bike is the least weird thing I put up with here."

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jin stepped away from the second person he'd had to dub Gotou and looked out the window. "This is our stop, coming up."

There were groans of disappointment from his audience, quite a few of whom had been dragged into a performance of the report—"Gotou" had originally been a young man who'd had to switch trains early into the story, and then had been replaced by a salaryman coming home from work early; a mother had been Airi, with her young son as Ryutaros; a pair of twin boys had been dragged in and Jin decided one would be Eiji while the other would be Shinji; a ridiculously tall and tough-looking African American tourist had nearly broken into laughter when he'd been cast as Yui; and the drunk Kuroki had, of course, been Kintaros. Jin had filled in remaining roles and gone around narrating everyone's actions and helping them with the dialogue.

As the train pulled into the station, the audience and players applauded Jin, who was supporting Kuroki and helping him take a bow, and quite a few of them handed over some money for the performance. As they stepped onto the platform, Jin said, "Wow, Kurorin, we earned enough for another ticket. Too bad you already bought the next."

Kuroki looked around. "This isn't home."

"Right you are, Kurorin," Jin answered with a grin. "This is the closest train station to the zoo. We're just going to meet up with Peanut, and then I'm gonna take you home."

"Peanut's here?"

"Hey, I'm a genius. Of course she's here."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once the Riders had left on ZeroLiner, Tokuda stepped out of the room and walked down the hall to a carefully guarded room. The kuroko bowed and stepped aside to let him enter, where Retsudo's four most trusted vassals were standing guard over Eri: Captain Shiraishi Haruki, Captain Hanaori Ayumu, Captain Tani Yuudai, and Captain Ikenami Ryu. They bowed before him, but Eri leapt to her feet and asked, "Is it true that Ren's gone missing?"

Tokuda looked to the four vassals. "Would you excuse us for a moment to speak in private?"

Captain Shiraishi hesitated, answering, "But Lord Retsudo said..."

"He will understand," Tokuda insisted. "I assure you."

"I do," Retsudo said, standing at the door. He bowed to Eri just before his vassals could get over their shock and bow to him. He walked over to his vassals and said, "I believe the three of us need to speak in private."

"Yes, Lord Retsudo," Shiraishi answered, trying to hide how much it stung.

"It's not that I don't trust you," Retsudo insisted, "but the Shogun entrusted a secret with us. For reasons of national security, it is vital that I keep this from you."

Once he was certain that his vassals were out of earshot, Retsudo dropped all the pomp and circumstance and sighed in frustration, "Forgive me, my Lord, but this is another fine mess you've gotten us into."

Tokuda, in reality Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune, chuckled. "Are you jealous that I've managed to put together an actual SECRET task force while your secret samurai run around in bright red, yellow, and blue kimonos?"

"Uncle!" Eri interrupted. "What happened to Ren—do you know anything?"

Tokuda looked at his niece—regardless of whatever was going on in this timesplosion, he cared about her, and he could see how deeply she and Ren were in love. So he carefully explained, "He's not missing—he's just undercover right now. Retsudo sent him to keep an eye on one of our Riders and the doctor, to be sure that nobody attacked them, such as the ninjas you said had stolen your jewelry."

Seeing that she felt too guilty to even challenge any of the almost-lies Tokuda had just said, Retsudo added, "And now that those ninjas really have attacked and taken your ring from him, he feels all the more reason to get it back to you."

"This is all my fault," she said, sinking to her bed. "If I hadn't lied to keep him out of trouble..."

"He probably would have gotten himself in trouble anyway," Tokuda insisted. "It's just who he is, and you know that very well." Looking over at Retsudo, he suggested, "I think we need to rendezvous with him and relieve him of his post. We'll send him back here as soon as possible."

Eri nodded, and the two samurai left the room. Retsudo quickly called over his kuroko and warned them to watch the room and especially the exits. Extra-especially, the secret ones no one was supposed to know about but did.

"I hope that got her to stay, but just in case," Retsudo said.

"Yes," Tokuda agreed. "But I was honest about going to check on him and sending him back."

"Agreed," Retsudo answered. "Incognito or not, he would have sent word back to us if nothing had happened."

"So something must have happened," Tokuda said.

They stepped out of the house, moving toward their horses. But before they reached the stable, they found a triceratops in their way.

"Something like this," Tokuda admitted.

"Which that means, it's time for this." Retsudo pulled out a calligraphy brush from his sleeves—in reality, a shodophone. "Ippitsu soujou!" With swift strokes, he drew the kanji for "fire" in the air, glowing from the power of mojikara. "Shinken Red, Shiba Retsudo! The Samurai Sentai authorized by Providence—Shinkenger!"

And placing a hiden disk on his Shinkenmaru and spinning it to activate the Rekka Daizantou, he cut off the horns of the triceratops with a single slash.

"Going forth!"

"That's still not much of a secret," Tokuda quipped as he slipped past and got their horses. He hoped he got his sword back from Ryotarou soon, so he could show his old friend how fighting was REALLY done.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wait," Kuroki said as Jin hauled him over to the elephant enclosure. "That samurai was a Shinkenger?"

For one of the few times in his life, Jin was shocked silent. All he could do was facepalm.

Even drunk, Kuroki could tell that what he'd said was J-levels of dense, and he admitted, "I only thought he was one of Tokuda's vassals."

"Are you kidding me?" Jin asked. "Mojikara, Shiba clan, frickin' SAMURAI with SUPERPOWERS—how did you NOT get that?!"

In the silence that followed, Jin sighed and said, "Stay here," placing him against the fence. "I've got to find the zookeeper."

And then he jumped the fence right into the elephant enclosure—something that would normally get, at the VERY least, a severe reprimand and dessert privileges being taken away. But Jin was immune to shame and had always gone behind his mother's back to get sweets whenever he'd been punished, so it didn't particularly affect him as an adult either. Kuroki watched as Jin found the person in charge of the elephants, and then...

And then something weird happened, weird for Jin at least. His laidback swagger was gone, and he suddenly went completely stiff. As he walked back to Kuroki and—instead of jumping the fence, went through the personnel door, there was an emotion on his face Kuroki had almost never seen there before. On him, it was almost impossible to place.

"Right. Okay. So, I'm going to get you home. Now."

"Now?" Kuroki asked, stumbling as Jin pulled him along, making a call on his Morphin Blaster.

"Yoko-chan? It's me. Yeah, while you're out, keep clear of a two kilometer radius of the zoo, 'kay? No, I didn't do anything—what was that, Kurorin?"

"Aren't you going to finish—" Kuroki started.

"Right, the story. Or mission report, whatever." Jin hung up. "Yeah, better wrap this one up."


	11. Trouble Comes Knocking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why are they both shirtless?
> 
> Because REASONS

The horse was in full gallop by the time J and Kohana managed to pull Ryotarou back up, and the lanterns from the tents were in sight.

"That must be the circus up ahead!" Kohana cried.

J leaned in, ahead of Ryotarou's vision.

"I did not know there were shirtless swordsmen in this circus."

"What?" Ryotarou asked, ducking ahead of J. He squinted and saw what clearly looked like someone attacking. "Oh no. Asakura must have found the others."

"We'll take care of it," Kohana insisted.

"No, I need to finish this," Ryotarou argued. "But not alone."

He brought up the K-Taros and pressed another button. [MOMO]

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Now, at that time, Momotaros was still standing guard with Ankh and Deneb," Jin explained, dragging Kuroki through the street. "Also, we missed the next train, so we might need the bus."

Kuroki leaned over and threw up into a garbage can.

"And another bag," Jin realized, quickly rushing into a store to get several paper bags for him. "And by then, Ren had woken up, and Deneb had realized exactly where he recognize him from..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deneb shrank from Ren's glare as the swordsman tried to get himself free. It had finally dawned on him where the black eye had come from and why he'd seemed so familiar. As for Ren, he hadn't quite put that much together, but he was mad enough about being knocked out and tied up, so there was that. And as for Momotaros and Ankh? Momo was getting twitchy about staying cooped up in the tent for so long while Ankh was even twitchier about Shingo being gone.

"He's taking too long," Ankh said. "Idiot. Something happened to him."

"Oi, his sis is beat up," Momotaros reasoned. "'Course he's gonna want to stay there awhile."

Ankh turned toward him. "How stupid are you?"

"Eh?!" Momotaros shouted. "Assbird-hand, who are you calling an idiot?"

"It's obvious he's done everything he can to get rid of us," Ankh said. "Even he can figure that out." He gestured toward Ren, who was eyeing them carefully. "He even tried to get Date out of the way."

"Wait," Momo said. Let it never be said he's a _complete_ idiot—he's a meathead, but given enough obvious hints, he can catch on. "Why'd he try to lose people trying to help him and his sister?"

"Humans always act selfishly," Ankh answered, as if that explained everything. "Looks like I'll have to go after him."

"What, like that?" Momotaros asked. "This timesplosion might be weird, but they're gonna notice a hand floating around."

Smugly, Ankh transformed into a human form—an exact copy of the form he took when he was possessing Shingo.

"Showoff," Momotaros muttered.

"It's better than staying in this tent," Ankh shot back. "So stay here and try not to break anything."

And that was the point when Ryotarou summoned Momo. He jumped up gleefully, shouting, "Ryotarou!" And with a glance toward Ankh, he said, "Looks like you'll be the one staying here, Assbird," before fading into red light and heading toward Ryotarou.

With a human form, Ankh's twitching was much more pronounced, and Deneb shrank away even more. But before he could explode in rage, Chiyoko burst into the tent.

"Shingo, trouble!" she cried. "There's some madman attacking Date—Yuuto's trying to help him, but now Hina's condition is worse. She needs you."

Unable to do much of anything, Ankh just got dragged along by Chiyoko toward Hina's tent. Deneb watched in confusion for a minute before realizing he'd been left all alone with an extremely pissed off samurai tied up in the tent.

"Hurry back!" he cried.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jin stopped suddenly in the street, where police had surrounded a car with a massive dent in the front. He pulled out his Morphin Blaster again and put in a call.

"Yoko-chan? Extend that to three kilometers, just to be on the safe side. You know what—why don't you guys get out of the city for a while? I think that'll do you some good."

"Why do you keep calling her?" Kuroki asked.

"No reason," Jin very obviously lied. "So, where were we?"

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date lifted up his sake jar to block against Asakura's strike. He was so relieved that the elephant pen was nearby—Peanut had spotted the ronin before him and trumpeted as a warning. He kicked Asakura to the ground, then set down his jar.

"You're just the guy I needed to meet," he told the shirtless ronin. "I need that sword of yours."

"Heh," Asakura laughed. "Why don't you come get it?"

"Looks like I'll have to take this seriously," Date decided, taking off his own shirt.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Why are they both shirtless?"

"Because REASONS."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Asakura charged, but Date slipped in beneath his defense and delivered a punch to his chin. On normal men, this would have been a knockout, or at least a suggestion to find someone else to fight. But Asakura was never quite right in the head, and he grinned as he tasted blood against his teeth.

"Looks like I'll have a fight that's actually fun for once," he said, stretching his neck

But as he prepared to attack, a Momotaros-possessed Ryotarou held him off with the reverse-blade sword.

"Ryotarou, what's with this sword?!" Momotaros complained. "You had to get the clumsiest sword in the world!"

_"Sorry, Momotaros,"_ Ryotarou apologized as they threw Asakura back again. They then turned around and handed the sword to Date. _"Please make sure this gets back to Tokuda."_

"No problem," Date agreed. "Unless you need my help with this?"

"Feh, we got this," Momotaros insisted. He held up the belt, with the K-Taros attached. "Ready, Ryotarou?"

Ryotarou would have smiled if he were in control of their body. _"It's a little overkill."_

"Who cares about that?" Momo asked. "I've been itching for a fight, and the doc here's got to get that sword back to help our friends."

_"All right. Ready."_

M-Ryotarou pressed the keys on the K-Taros. [Momo Ura Kin Ryu Climax Form]

"Henshin!"

Within seconds, Den-O's armor formed with the masks of all four Imajin combined. Momotaros dusted off his hands and said, "All right. This climax has been long overdue. Let's go, go, go!"

At which point, Ryutaros took over their body, throwing Asakura back as he charged.

"See? See? I told you Ryotarou was back! Oh, and Stupid Momo's here too. Hey, mind if I talk for a bit—can't hear ya!"

Asakura tried an overhead strike with his sword, but Momotaros blocked it, screaming, "What?!"

But he didn't have any time to yell at Ryutaros because Kintaros had taken over and punched Asakura in the stomach before assuming a sumo stance. "Ryotarou, you seem stronger than the last time we saw you. It's enough to make me cry!"

Urataros took over immediately after and kicked Asakura, saying, "It won't be long now before you're reeling in the ladies."

Ryotarou decided it was finally his turn to step in, and grabbing Asakura's sword arm, he warned, "I'm glad to be with all of you again, but we really do need to stop Asakura. Please, let Momotaros take over."

"All right." "Okay!" "Go, Momonoji," chorused the other Imajin.

"Right," Momotaros replied, pulling the sword out of Asakura's hand and throwing it to the ground. "From start to finish, we're all at a climax!" He pressed a key on the K-Taros and scanned the Pass. "Hissatsu attack! Special Climax Version!"

Before Ryotarou even had to warn about the overkill, Momotaros had Rider Kicked Asakura into a feeding trough. Date ran over to check him, keeping hold on both swords.

"Broken ribs and out cold, but he's alive," he diagnosed. "Kind of a shame, but at least he won't be fighting anyone for a while."

"We can take care of this," Ryotarou insisted. "Please get to work on that antidote."

"No problem," Date agreed, rushing off toward Hina's tent.

Den-O stood over Asakura, and Momotaros rubbed the back of their head, wondering just what to do.

"Dunno if it's a good idea asking Odebu to watch over this guy too."

_"Too?"_ Ryotarou repeated.

"Sempai, have you been kidnapping the locals?" Urataros taunted.

"He's acting like a real oni now," Kintaros agreed.

"Shut up!" Momotaros yelled. "I'm not an oni!"

"Stupid oni!" Ryutaros shouted. "Stupid oni Momo!"

"I ain't no oni!" Momotaros shouted. "All of you shut up!"

"Deneb!" came a sudden shout.

Ryotarou took control, turning them around. "Yuuto?"

Yuuto was running toward his tent, where Deneb was peeking out, reluctant.

"The elephant escaped her pen," he said. "I can't find Maki anywhere. We've got to find this thing—we're already missing the pterodactyl and triceratops. We can't lose the elephant too!"

_"Dinosaurs?"_ Ryotarou wondered.

"Don't ask," Momotaros muttered.

"But..." Deneb insisted.

"Just leave him for now!" Yuuto insisted. "This is more important!"

_"Everybody, head back to DenLiner and get ready in case I need to use Liner Form. I can take care of this,"_ Ryotarou promised.

"Eh, all right," Momotaros agreed reluctantly. "Guess you haven't had fun in a while either."

Ryotarou smiled as the Imajin left and his transformation broke. He ran over to Yuuto and Deneb and said, "I can help you both, if you need."

They gave a suspicious look to the teen, but he was as serious as anything. Finally, Yuuto said, "Okay. C'mon, Deneb. It'll go faster with three of us."

"R-right," Deneb agreed at last, secretly glad to be let out of the tent with the captive Ren.

Ryotarou was a little worried about leaving Asakura behind unguarded, but as Yuuto and Deneb took off, he heard ZeroLiner's whistle, and he saw Yui and Airi reach out of the train to haul him on board. He smiled in relief at his sister, who smiled back before shutting the door and heading off. They'd figure out a way to keep him from causing trouble.

What they didn't know was that the one they really should have been keeping a closer eye on was Ren.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Why?" Kuroki asked.

"I'll get to that in a second," Jin promised, making a left for the bus stop. "It actually starts with Ankh."


	12. Double-Action Assbird Form

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How many people get possessed between Den-O and OOO?
> 
> That's a good question, actually.

If Ankh had to be honest with himself, then he really, _really_ , really didn't mind Hina and Eiji all that much. In fact, he kinda, maybe, actually...stopped short of saying he liked them.

Hina was in much worse shape than when Shingo and Date had checked on her before. The paralytic effect of the venom was making it hard for her to breathe, and she couldn't move her body at all. What had been easier for Eiji to stave off due to Greeedification was wearing her down fast.

"This is no infection," he recognized easily.

Chiyoko didn't answer, instead trying to get a cool cloth over Hina's forehead. More than a little disturbed by how weak she'd become, Ankh sat next to Hina, watching carefully.

"You're..." she tried to say. "You're not Oniichan."

It was too low for Ankh to hear, especially with the dulled senses of a Greeed without a human host. But he knew what she was saying anyway and answered, "No."

"Oi, Chiyoko," Date said, running in with a sword. "How's the patient?"

"Not good," she answered. "She can't move, can barely breathe."

"She needs an antidote," Ankh said.

Date looked at him in surprise for an instant, realizing at once this couldn't be Shingo, but he set his supplies and Asakura's sword down and said, "That's what I'm working on. Chiyoko, I need hot water—boiling."

He emptied the sake jug of all supplies except for several herbs. Chiyoko brought over a kettle full of boiling water, and he wasted no time pouring it into the jug, stirring the concoction with the sword.

"This'll leach out the venom from the sword, and the herbs will neutralize it to create the antidote," he explained. "I just need more heat."

Knowing what would happen if he didn't help, Ankh revealed his Greeed arm and stood up, ready to add fire to the mix. But as he turned toward Date, he saw something forming from sand behind him.

"Behind you!" he shouted, throwing a fireball.

Date ducked just in time as Odin took form, but the Rider threw off his flames easily with his own. Not willing to waste any more time, Chiyoko took a calligraphy brush from her table and quickly drew the kanji for wind. Just as had happened with Captain Shiraishi, a gust of wind appeared from the wind, buffeting the fiery Odin and sending him right out of the tent.

Ankh looked over at her in shock, and she smiled. "You're not the only one with tricks, Shingo. My family are all skilled in wind mojikara. I was one of the few who didn't want to be a samurai." She walked out of the tent. "I'll make sure he's away from here, okay?"

Date grinned. "Nice, my kind of woman! And that wind and fire helped heat this thing up some more, which is good. It needs to stay hot."

Replacing his shock with irritation, Ankh looked around at the other things on the tables, which he hadn't had as much time to see when he was sharing space with Momo and Shingo. Immediately, he noticed a fine ring, and he picked it up.

"How does a member of a failing circus afford such nice jewelry?" he asked hypothetically.

"They don't," Date answered grimly as he stirred the antidote. "Shingo figured it out too. They're our ninja jewel thieves. Isn't that right?" He looked at Hina, who managed to nod tearfully.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"You acted just like any human would," Ankh replied. "Take what you have to to survive."

Date didn't question any of it, but he ladled out some of the antidote into a vial. "I'm sure Lord Retsudo's got some trick to turn this into a mojikara, but it's got to stay hot at the time it's administered. You wouldn't mind doing that trick again, would you?"

Without a word, Ankh took the vial and wrapped it in fire. As he crouched down by Hina and saw her straining again, he said, "Relax. It won't hurt."

Even though she had no way of knowing if he was telling the truth, she trusted him and relaxed. The glass of the vial disintegrated from the heat, and Ankh lowered the fire over her wound, carefully applying the fumes of the antidote and burning the wound closed. As soon as it was done, Hina went completely limp, asleep.

"She's gonna need to rest," Date said. "That took a lot out of her."

"At least it'll keep her out of trouble," Ankh replied. "Her brother won't be happy if anything happens to her."

"I don't doubt it," Date agreed. "I've got to get this to another patient, so I'll leave her with you."

Just as he opened the tent flap, they saw Shingo outside over a pile of sand, picking something up.

"Shingo!" Chiyoko cried, not realizing that he and Ankh were different people. Immediately, Ankh reverted to his hand form. "What are you doing out here? Get back in there with Hina!"

"I wanted to grab this first," Shingo warned, holding up Odin's deck. "This should keep him from attacking again."

"Oh good," Chiyoko sighed. "I was worried my mojikara wouldn't be strong enough. I'm so out of practice."

"Please stay inside with Hina," he asked. "I'm going to make sure that nothing else is around."

"Okay," she agreed.

Date quickly pushed Ankh into the very top of his sake jug full of antidote so neither Shingo nor Chiyoko would see him. As Chiyoko walked in, he said, "Oi, Shingo gave you the good news?"

"Hina's better?" Chiyoko asked.

"Yep, all good, though she needs to sleep it off. I've got another patient across town, so I'll leave her to you."

"Thank you!"

As soon as Date was able to get them out of the tent and far enough away that they figured Shingo wouldn't be a threat, he let Ankh out of the jug.

"Man, this just keeps getting worse," he admitted. "Now Shingo's got that deck."

"Head back to your patients," Ankh said. "I'll take care of the idiot."

"All right," Date agreed, shouldering the jug and Tokuda's sword. "Good luck."

They parted ways, with Date rushing to find Tokuda and Retsudo and Ankh heading for Yuuto's tent, where Ren was tied up and abandoned. His eyes widened at the sight of the floating hand coming for him, but Ankh didn't give him time to do anything other than get possessed. As Ren's hair parted down the side and curled, a phantom wing burst out of his right side, destroying the ropes around him. Ankh stood up, threw off the gag, and flexed his hand.

"Not a perfect replacement, but it'll get me through this," he decided. "Now, to find Eiji and stop the other idiot from doing something he'll regret."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"How many people get possessed between OOO and Den-O?" Kuroki asked suddenly.

Jin stopped. "That's a good question, actually. Probably about as many as the power swaps in this mission."

The bus arrived, and Jin helped Kuroki aboard, providing him with a bag.

"So it didn't take Date long to find Tokuda and Retsudo..."


	13. Power to Survive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If the only way to help you is to fight you, then I'm not going to stop until you're back to normal.

"Oi, Tokuda!" Date called out as they approached him on horseback. "Lord Retsudo, looking nice!"

"Shingo lost you," Tokuda realized.

"Yeah, but I found Ryotarou and got your sword back." He handed it over. "The kid did pretty good once his memories came back. Defeated Asakura and everything."

"That's one problem out of the way," Retsudo admitted.

"But we've got another," Date said, but before he could explain what had happened to Shingo, the hawk appeared, circling overhead.

"The Riders," Retsudo recognized. "Hold off on your explanation for now."

The hawk doubled back, summoning Shinji and Eiji, who arrived on Dragredder's back, jumping off before he returned to a mirror nearby in the dinosaur enclosure.

"What was that about secret?" Retsudo quipped to Tokuda.

Ignoring his friend, Tokuda looked at Eiji, who was paler than ever, his eyes completely purple. Shinji was holding him up as he struggled to breathe.

"He's getting worse," Shinji said, worried. "It started off with just the venom, but ever since we got close to the circus, his eyes started doing this." Eiji appeared to try to explain, but he couldn't get enough breath to speak. "We told everyone on ZeroLiner to pick up Asakura for us while we went to find you."

Date wasn't wasting any more time. He set Eiji down on the ground, propping his head up on his rolled-up shirt so he could breathe a little better, and went to his jug full of antidote.

"Damn. Went cold. Lord Retsudo, I need some—"

But just as he asked, Eiji writhed in pain, and strangled sounds like screams were coming from him. Date immediately realized something was wrong and turned his attention back to him.

"That's not right," he said. "The venom acts as a paralytic. After the first few minutes, the pain goes away."

Shinji immediately started looking around, holding his deck. He knew it wasn't Odin—he'd have sensed something coming from the Mirror World. Retsudo and Tokuda were also at attention, dismounted from their horses and their swords drawn.

"Hino Eiji."

And they whirled around to see the circus master, Maki, walking toward them, his (slightly charred) doll on his arm.

The closer Maki got to them, the more Eiji reacted. Shinji stood in front of his friend, ready to defend him, though he wasn't sure against what.

"Even now, you are still resisting the Medals inside your body," Maki noticed. "But with your resistance lowered from the venom, it's only a matter of time before you lose control. And then the end will come."

"That's enough!" Shinji decided, running forward to try to tackle him. But to his surprise, Maki's eyes flashed purple, and he held out a scaly Greeed arm, blasting cold energy that sent him flying. Retsudo didn't waste any time, leaping up to catch him.

"Thanks," Shinji replied. "I didn't think that guy would be so strong. What is he, some kind of Rider?"

"Much worse," Tokuda decided.

"What will you do?" Maki asked. "With the timesplosion, my power has increased. I will take hold of this chaos and bring it to a glorious end. And as my first act, I will end your friends' lives."

Even wounded, Eiji wasn't going to stand for that, and so he tried to stand. Date tried to ease him back down, warning, "Don't even think about fighting him! You could die! Let us get the antidote in you first!"

But Eiji managed to let out a feral scream, and a burst of purple energy erupted from his body, blasting Date into Tokuda, who held him steady. Eiji stood up, hunched over and breathing heavily, his eyes glowing and making him look even less human than Maki. With another shout, three Medals ejected themselves from his body and took their places in his driver, and he scanned them.

[PTERA! TRICERA! TYRANNO! PUTOTYRANNOSAURUS!]

As Eiji stood before them as PuToTyra, Shinji realized, "This is not good."

Eiji started to make a move against Maki, but Shinji ran forward to get in his way, warning, "Eiji, you need help! If this guy is really so dangerous, we can stop him for you!" But Eiji was already losing control and swatted Shinji out of his way.

That was when the cavalry arrived, in the form of blasts from the Birth Buster and shots from two Morphin Blasters. Eiji staggered back from the blasts, and Shinji turned to see Kohana and J approaching in full gallop and full henshin.

" _Ore_ sanjou," J declared.

Kohana pulled out her fan and smacked him hard enough to throw him off the horse. "Shut _up_ , J!"

She brought the horse into a leap over Maki and Eiji's heads, then dismounted to help Shinji up.

"Thanks," he said, giving very confused looks between her and Date. "But isn't he..."

"I'm borrowing this for a bit," she explained. "Eiji's out of control. We have to stop him."

"But..." Shinji protested, not willing to fight another Rider, especially not a friend, and one who only knew other Riders as friends to fight alongside instead of enemies to defeat.

But without hesitation, Kohana went into action, punching Eiji with the Crane Arm. He tried to fly away from her, but she'd gotten a good enough hold on him that she could pull with the winch. J continued firing on him, but Eiji had had enough and yanked on Kohana, whipping her right into J.

Shinji gasped in shock and yelled, "Eiji, stop! They're your friends!"

But Date ran over and picked up the fallen Birth Buster, opening fire as he warned, "There's no getting through to him now. Not with whatever's happened to him. If you're really his friend, you'll stop him."

Shinji lowered his head, clutching his deck.

"Finally," he said. "Finally, I thought I met another Rider who saw things the way Tezuka and I did. Someone who'd never think about fighting another Rider. And now this."

From the air, Eiji blasted ice at Date, who tumbled out of the way before returning fire, aided by J while Kohana shook off her injuries and added to the attack with the Breast Cannon.

"But if the only way to help you is to fight you, then I'm not going to stop until you're back to normal," Shinji decided, turning toward the mirrored pen for the dinosaurs. He held out his deck, and his belt appeared on his body. "Henshin!"

The second he'd henshinned, he pulled a card from his deck, and the lanterns around them blazed all the more brightly. Shinji's Visor changed into a gun shape, and he placed the card inside.

[SURVIVE]

Flames swirled around him and upgraded his armor into Survive form.  Looking up from his Visor to Eiji, Shinji declared, "All right."

Retsudo had wasted no time joining the fight, creating a fire barrier with his mojikara to protect everyone from Eiji's ice blasts. Shinji calmly walked forward and looked at Kohana.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "He's a lot stronger than I expected."

"He needs the antidote," Date warned. "If we cure him, he might be able to regain control. But the problem is, it has to be hot to work."

"Leave that to me," Retsudo promised. "But the moment I drop this shield, all of you will be in danger."

" _I_ will protect everyone," J volunteered, leaping over the barrier and firing on Eiji.

"J, wait!" Kohana cried, but it was too late. J had succeeded in luring him back to the ground, where he was ruthlessly attacking him with an ax. Kohana smashed her fist into the ground. "Jin's going to kill me if anything happens to him."

"I'll help J," Shinji insisted. "We'll hold off Eiji long enough for Date and Retsudo to apply the cure."

"And you want us to find Ryotarou," Tokuda surmised.

"Right," Shinji agreed. "It looks like Maki might have run, but there's still the problem of Odin. Our friends think Kanzaki's approached Shingo to take up the deck."

"That's what we think too," Tokuda answered. "Ren thought the same and went after him."

"We need to find the both of them," Kohana realized. "Without his Rider powers, Ren doesn't stand a chance against Odin, and Ryotarou's already taking a huge risk with using Liner Form."

"Will you help?" Shinji asked. "You're the only other one with Rider powers here."

Kohana nodded, and Tokuda smiled, replying, "You have the undying gratitude of the Tokugawa." Before Shinji could recover from that shock, Tokuda whistled for their horses, and they mounted, racing off with the hawk ahead of them, in search of their friends.

Turning back to the battle, Shinji declared, "Okay, Eiji. I promised I'd help you. So here it goes!" He whipped down his Visor, extending a sword from the gun, and raced forward to help back up J.

Despite firing with two blasters, J was taking a vicious beating from Eiji's ax. Just as he was thrown back, Shinji charged in, meeting the ax with his sword.

"J, are you okay?" he checked.

"I am fine," J insisted. "But I do not have the Drive Blade in this time. Jin has not yet created it."

Shinji pretended he understood a word J was talking about and said, "Right. So I'll take him in close, and you keep firing on him from a distance."

"Roger," J agreed.

Eiji pulled back and struck at Shinji's armor. Shinji winced—it had been a while since anyone had really put a dent in the Survive armor—and said, "Eiji, you've got to regain control. We're trying to help you." But Eiji couldn't hear him—he was still in that feral state and struck again with the ax. Shinji ducked in time to avoid losing his head, then slashed at him, forcing him back just a little. "I don't want to have to hurt you, Eiji! Dr. Date, Lord Retsudo, how is the antidote coming?"

Retsudo was intensely creating a hiden disk for the antidote, so Date answered, "Still working on it, but it's going to take some time. Don't let anything break his concentration!"

"Right!" Shinji agreed, charging Eiji again while J fired.

The flames from Survive form made most of Eiji's ice attacks useless, but even in this state, he was too smart to keep trying something that didn't work. He fed a Medal into the ax, which gulped it down. As he slashed with it, a wave of purple energy came right at Shinji and J.

Shinji just got his Guard Vent card scanned in time, and Dragredder, now in the form of Dragranzer, flew out of the nearby mirrors to protect them. But that meant they couldn't protect Retsudo and Date, as Eiji turned the ax into a gun and turned to them.

Date immediately opened fire with the Birth Buster, but Eiji could hardly feel it and prepared to fire. It looked like everything was over, but then Peanut stampeded in and plowed right into him.

"Eh?" Shinji asked.

With Eiji dropped, Peanut turned her attention to the pack of sandwiches he'd dropped when he collapsed. Watching her eat the spilled sandwiches, Shinji realized, "Of course. She smelled the peanut butter Airi put on the sandwiches!"

"Nice assist, Elephant-chan!" Date replied. "I love the circus!"

"I do not understand this world," J decided.

"It's almost done!" Retsudo shouted, the hiden disk taking shape. "Get him ready!"

"All right!" Shinji cried, scanning Shoot Vent. Dragranzer backed him up with fire as he blasted a laser at Eiji, forcing him away from Peanut. J moved to another side and shot both of the Morphin Blasters, and Date fired from a third side with the Birth Buster. All of the attacks firing on him made it impossible for Eiji to counterattack, and bought Retsudo enough time to charge in with his sword blazing, cutting right into him and delivering the antidote in the most spectacular way possible.

Everyone stopped their attacks, and Eiji collapsed, losing his henshin and breathing heavily.

"Enemy eliminated," J declared.

"Eiji?" Shinji asked as Retsudo helped Eiji to his feet. "Are you..."

"Better," Eiji admitted, still looking exhausted. "Thanks. Everyone."

Just then, the hawk returned, and the grasshopper leapt off of it and into Eiji's hands. Immediately, a recording from Kohana played.

_"Guys, big trouble! Ryotarou found Shingo, but he's got Odin's deck now!"_

"We've got to help," Eiji insisted.

"Not you," Shinji argued. "You're still recovering!"

"I'll be fine as long as I don't use any Medals for a little bit," he insisted. "That won't be a problem, if Ankh's in danger too."

"But..." Shinji argued.

"I need to be able to help them!" Eiji pleaded. "Shingo can't be thinking straight—he's just as out of control as I was."

"Then..." Shinji decided. "Then okay. Fight to save the human in him."

"Right," Eiji agreed. "J?" J looked up from the can of Enetron he'd gotten from...somewhere. I'm still not really clear on that. "I need to borrow that other blaster."

"Roger," he agreed, handing it over.

As soon as Eiji had it in hand, he activated it just the way J had, and the morpher called out, [IT'S MORPHIN TIME!]

"Let's morphin!" Eiji ordered.

The parts stripped off of J, forming...

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Beet Buster?" Kuroki asked in shock.

"Yep," Jin answered. "So by technicality, I'm the second Beet Buster. Eiji was the first."

He continued to look out the bus window at the traffic jam, with that strange expression Kuroki hadn't been able to place. Only now, he thought he could read it. On anyone else, it would have been annoyance—aggravation—worry. Jin was supposedly immune to those emotions, taking everything in stride.

"Jin," he asked. "What happened?"

And as always, Jin covered up his true emotions by putting on a smile and saying, "So, if we're getting to the part with Shingo, we'd better start off with Ryotarou, huh?"


	14. Time Judged All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eiji! What the hell are you wearing?
> 
> I could ask you the same thing!
> 
> And that's the story of how we met our elephant.

Ryotarou ran behind Yuuto and Deneb as they searched for Peanut, who they didn't know was busy helping kick Eiji's ass into next week. But something had been bothering him since he'd regained his memories: When he'd fought the ninjas, two of them had a very particular fighting style. It was something he'd missed while overwritten by the timesplosion, but now that his memories were back the way they should be, he knew he recognized that style. He'd seen it plenty of times in the past and had fought alongside and against it. And it all made too much sense.

"The two of you are ninjas, aren't you?" he asked. Immediately, Deneb stiffened, and he knew he was right. "You're the ones who stole that ring from Ren, weren't you?"

"Well, we..." Deneb started. "That is..."

"Quiet!" Yuuto hissed, hitting him.

Holding back all judgment, Ryotarou walked closer to them. "I know you both well enough to know you wouldn't do this without a good reason." He looked around at the shabby tents. "This is a small circus, with only a few performers and animals. You just lost two of your dinosaurs, and now your elephant's gone missing. How long before the whole thing shuts down?"

"Shut up!" Yuuto ordered, turning on him. "What would you know about..."

"About bad luck?" Ryotarou challenged, his voice even. "I've known it every day of my life. If you remembered anything about me, you'd know that."

Yuuto gave him a puzzled, but suspicious, look. "Who are you?"

"You'll remember soon, as long as we can set everything right," Ryotarou insisted. "First, tell me: are there mirrors in the pens for either the dinosaurs or the elephant?"

"Yes," Deneb answered before Yuuto could shut him up. "They're in the dinosaur corral."

"Just like we thought," Ryotarou realized. "And the elephant is just a normal elephant this time."

"What are you talking about?" Yuuto asked.

"Who runs this circus?" Ryotarou asked. "Does he know what you've been doing?"

"No, Maki doesn't care," he answered. "I think he'd be perfectly happy if we ran this place into the ground."

"Then he must remember too," Ryotarou realized. "He must have been right in the heart of the timesplosion."

"What?" Yuuto asked.

Ryotarou ignored him, continuing, "And if he was right in the timesplosion, then that means..." His eyes widened. "We need to warn the others!"

"By now, they've already figured it out," came a new voice.

Ryotarou tensed up at the sound of Shingo's voice, but Yuuto and Deneb turned with only mild suspicion.

"Izumi," Deneb recognized. "We were..."

"What are you doing here?" Yuuto asked. "Your twin had to take care of Hina for you."

For a moment, a flash of guilt appeared on Shingo's face, and he asked, "Where is Ankh?"

"Probably lying low," Ryotarou answered. "Ren was right, wasn't he? What did you do to him?"

When Shingo didn't answer, Yuuto clued in. "Deneb. Go back to the tent and grab the samurai."

"What?" Deneb asked.

"Now!" Yuuto shouted.

As Deneb ran off, Ryotarou pulled out the K-Taros and called DenLiner. Naomi picked up.

"Hi, Ryotarou! It's been a long time since we heard from you—when are you going to stop by for coffee?"

"Soon," he promised. "Are Momotaros and the others there yet?"

"No," she answered. "But I think Owner said they were on their way."

"All right, thank you," he replied, hanging up.

Shingo gave him what would have been a sympathetic look from anyone not conned into Kanzaki's scheme. "I know what it's like," he insisted, walking forward. "Always having to step back, always having to watch. Never being able to help your friends." He stood directly in front of Ryotarou, his hand out. "Give me the phone and Rider Pass. You don't have to do this. I can set everything right. Nobody will be hurt as long as you don't try to stop me."

Ryotarou unwaveringly looked at him. "There's no way Kanzaki would let you do this. How can you trust him?"

"I don't," Shingo insisted. "I'm not going to let him get his way either. I'll set everything right, in all three timelines. No one will ever have to be hurt again."

Ryotarou held up the K-Taros. "Shingo, I believe you wouldn't try to hurt anyone." Shingo reached out to take the phone, but Ryotarou pulled away. "But I don't believe that's just you talking right now."

Shingo lunged for him, but Ryotarou ducked out of the way and backed up. Yuuto ran in, grappling with Shingo, and shouting, "Get out of here! You don't stand a chance!"

"No, get his sister!" Ryotarou insisted. "She might be able to talk some sense into him!"

"And leave you by yourself?" Yuuto cried.

Ryotarou held up the belt, now with the K-Taros attached. "I'll be fine."

Shingo pulled away from Yuuto, who hesitated for a moment before running back toward Hina's tent. As Ryotarou evenly stared at him, holding up the belt, Shingo answered, "So. A Rider battle it is."

"Ryotarou!" Kohana cried as she and Tokuda rode over. Neither Rider reacted to the interruption, too intent on watching his opponent to be sure he wouldn't try anything. While Tokuda dismounted, unsheathing his sword, Kohana took the hawk and recorded a call for help on the grasshopper.

"Maybe it's wrong for Riders to fight each other," Ryotarou decided. "But if it's something you believe in, people you want to protect, then it's worth it."

"Then let _me_ protect the people I want to protect!" Shingo insisted.

"Ryotarou, be careful," Tokuda warned. "This kind of desire—it's on par with the Greeed my ancestors warned of. It's the very power that overcame Eiji not long ago."

This made Ryotarou react, and he glanced over at Tokuda in shock. Hearing the news, Shingo said, "See? Not even Eiji has the power to protect the people he wants to. But I do. I can protect Hina. I can protect Eiji. I can even protect you and your timeline."

"No, you can't," Ryotarou insisted. "Because what you have isn't true power at all."

Shingo scowled and turned toward Tokuda's gleaming blade, holding out his deck. The belt appeared around him quickly, and he clenched his right hand into a fist and turned it toward himself. At the same time, Ryotarou whipped his own belt around himself.

"Henshin!" they cried.

Liner Form's armor appeared on Ryotarou, just as Odin's armor appeared on Shingo. Ryotarou reached out to grab the DenKamen Sword, only to be blasted with explosive feathers, knocking him to the ground. It _hurt_ —it had been a long time since he'd had to fight with his own power, and his younger body was definitely not used to it.

"Ryotarou!" Kohana cried. She quickly powered up the Breast Cannon and fired a few shots at Shingo, who didn't feel a damn thing and turned toward her to attack. But this left him wide open to Ryotarou, who charged into him with his sword.

"Hana, please, don't," Ryotarou insisted. "You're too important to the timeline to risk getting hurt!"

Shingo teleported out of the way and blasted at Ryotarou again. Kohana wasted no time firing on him so Ryotarou could get up. Tokuda charged in as well, his sword reversed and cutting through feathers like they were nothing.

"And you aren't?" Kohana demanded. "I'm a singular point, the same as Koutarou and the same as you. You'd be the first to say that this doesn't make you any more important than anybody else."

"You're right," Ryotarou realized, and the two singular points took a defensive stance.

"Ryotarou!" Eiji shouted, and they turned to see all of the others coming forward, most of them riding on Peanut's back, with J of course in front of Eiji.

"Eiji!" Ryotarou cried.

"J!" Kohana agreed.

Shinji looked sadly at Shingo in Odin's armor and said, "Shingo. Kanzaki's tricked you."

"No," Shingo denied. "I'm perfectly in control!"

"He'll never let you have your way!" Shinji insisted.

"Hina wouldn't want this," Eiji agreed. "Please. There's still a chance."

Shingo wavered, looking at the Visor. For a moment, it seemed like he would give up. But then, both he and Shinji looked over to the reflection in J's helmet, sensing a Mirror World presence.

"You," Shingo realized.

"Kanzaki!" Shinji cried.

Neither one of them really could explain what happened, but the next thing that anybody knew, Shingo was clutching his head and screaming. Eiji ran over immediately, shouting, "Shingo! Fight it! You've kept your own self throughout Ankh and Momotaros possessing you, you can beat Kanzaki!"

But it wasn't enough, and a flurry of feathers exploded out in a tornado from him. Everyone was thrown back, and Shingo rose, completely under Kanzaki's control.

Date was the first to get up, opening fire with the Birth Buster. J and Eiji were next, double-teaming with the Morphin Blasters. But Shingo immediately went for Eiji, using the Visor to smack the Morphin Blaster out of his hand before blasting him away. He ran toward him again, but Tokuda and Retsudo slashed at him with their swords, distracting him long enough for Shinji and Ryotarou to help him up.

"Are you okay?" Ryotarou checked.

"I'm fine," Eiji insisted. "I'm more worried about..."

Shinji nodded. "Odin completely takes over a person's will. Shingo couldn't stop even if he wanted to."

"We have to try," Eiji argued. "If we can just reach out to him..."

"Oniichan!"

The two Riders and one Sentai looked over to see Yuuto helping Hina over, who was watching the battle with horror.

"What's Hina doing here?" Eiji asked.

"I'm sorry," Ryotarou apologized. "I asked Yuuto to get her. I thought she might be able to talk some sense into him, but..."

"Hina, don't," Yuuto insisted, struggling with her to keep her from running in.

Hina might have been strong, but Yuuto was just as strong as she was in her current state, and she couldn't break free. "Oniichan, please, stop!"

But the next thing anyone knew, the shades on Eiji's helmet flashed purple for a moment, and Ryotarou heard Momotaros's voice in his mind, shouting, _"That Imajin's back!"_

"Not just the Imajin," Ryotarou said, seeing how tense Eiji was. "It's still combined with the Yummy."

Shinji saw it before either of them did and shouted, "Look out!"

Yuuto and Hina turned to see the tyrannosaurus coming toward them, but it was quickly met with a fireball and a spray of bullets. Yuuto ducked, covering Hina as their saviors came into view.

"Deneb!" Ryotarou cried in relief.

"Ren!" Shinji shouted.

And then "Ren" launched another fireball at the tyrannosaurus. It swung its tail at him, but he blocked with his Greeed right hand.

"Okay, not Ren," Shinji admitted.

"It's Ankh!" Eiji cried.

"Eiji!" Ankh yelled. "What the hell are you wearing?"

Eiji couldn't help but groan. "I could ask you the same thing!"

"Tch," Ankh replied. "Idiot."

Ryotarou ran over to Yuuto and Hina. "Are you both all right?"

"Yeah," Yuuto answered. "What's with the dinosaurs all of a sudden?"

"Maki must have transferred the Imajin-Yummy to it somehow," Shinji realized. "When it separated from Odin."

"We need to stop this first," Eiji insisted. "Shingo might be dangerous in this state, but as long as he can't scan any cards, the others can still hold out."

"We all need to fight," Ryotarou agreed, setting up the DenGasher and handing it to Yuuto. "Will you help us?"

Yuuto nodded and took the sword, and Hina added, "I'll help too, if we can save Oniichan."

Ankh looked uncomfortably guilty and tossed over Ren's sword, which he'd managed to grab from the tent before meeting up with Deneb. "Your freakish strength won't be enough on its own." She nodded and unsheathed it.

"Is everybody ready?" Ryotarou murmured, feeling the link to his Imajin.

_"Yeah,"_ Momo answered, _"but it was hard getting the old setup in here with all of Owner's remodeling."_

_"And the crowds,"_ Urataros agreed. _"It's a tighter fit than usual."_

_"Stupid bear, you're sleeping on me!"_ Ryutaros yelled, over a snore from Kintaros.

Ryotarou smiled. It was good to be back. "All right. Everyone, let's go."

Thinking this was meant for the rest of them, Shinji nodded. "All right!"

They charged, with Ryotarou and Shinji leading the charge with their swords. Ryotarou and Yuuto joined forces on one leg, and Yuuto handled the DenGasher like a pro, backing up Ryotarou's combined power from his Imajin with his own strength. Hina was a little shakier with the katana, but her insane strength was a perfect match to Shinji's Survive power. As the T-rex started to fall, Eiji and Ankh leapt up and struck with blows to force it to the ground while Deneb shot at it from behind. Still, it almost wasn't enough, until ZeroLiner burst out of the ground and drilled right into the dinosaur, causing it to explode in a shower of sand.

"Good job, Gotou," Eiji breathed.

"Eh?" Shinji asked. "How did you know it was him?"

"And how would he know how to control ZeroLiner like that?" Ryotarou added.

"Easy," Eiji answered. "He always reads the instruction manual."

ZeroLiner came to a stop, and Gotou, Yui, and Airi appeared at the door. But just as they were ready to step off, Ryotarou warned, "Neesan, everyone, stop! You weren't at the battle—if you step off ZeroLiner, you'll be rewritten into the timesplosion!"

"It's a chance we're willing to take, Ryo-chan," Airi insisted.

"We decided," Gotou added. "We all want to fix things."

"We'll help no matter what," Yui agreed.

The three Riders looked at each other and nodded, and their friends stepped off the time train, quickly being adapted into the new timeline. Yui, who'd grabbed the ZeroGasher before they stepped off, was dressed as a miko. Airi wore an elegant kimono, and Eiji wasted no time demorphing and handing her the recovered Morphin Blaster so she could fight from a distance. Gotou was dressed as a firefighter of the period (plus the frilly apron from before), and Shinji gave him an awkward laugh.

"I really don't have any weapons to spare, sorry," he said.

"You can take this," Hina insisted, handing over the katana. "I'd rather fight Oniichan with my own hands."

"Thanks," Gotou answered, taking the blade.

Ankh gave Eiji another glare as he held up three Medals. "If you're done wasting time..."

Eiji took them and snarked back, "More done than you are. Seriously, borrowing Ren?"

Ankh had nothing to say to this, and Eiji grinned at the victory before scanning all three Medals and transforming into TaJaDor.

Shingo was tearing things up by that time, and Tokuda had been forced to pull Retsudo away from the battle for his own safety while Kohana and J continued shooting and dodging attacks.

"I did not expect this kind of power," Retsudo admitted. "If I'd known what we would face, I would have prepared a stronger weapon."

"Hindsight, my friend," Tokuda replied.

Now that everyone had finished trading off weapons, Gotou, Hina, and Yuuto charged in to face Shingo head-on while Yui and Airi ran over, shooting. Following behind were the Riders and Ankh.

"I think we can take it from here," Eiji insisted. "You guys get to safety."

"It's probably a good idea," Ryotarou agreed. "We're going to be messing with a lot of laws of time."

"That's as good a reason as any," Tokuda had to admit. "Come on." Retsudo nodded, and they mounted their horses and left.

With no one else from that time to worry about, the Riders charged into battle alongside their friends. Ryotarou charged up the DenKamen Sword, switching through his Imajin's powers fast enough to make them dizzy, doing everything he could to try to keep up with Shingo's teleportation. Kohana was back-to-back with him, striking with Crane Arm whenever he got too close. Shinji stuck close to Ankh, both of them trying to target the Visor.  Shinji kept up attacks with his sword, but whenever it looked like Shingo would try the explosive feathers, Ankh launched a fireball that blew them up before they could impact, giving Shinji an opening to attack. Since Eiji didn't have any weapons in this form, he and Hina joined forces, sticking to hand-to-hand. Shingo had just enough control to avoid trying to hurt his sister, and they took advantage of that to strike as hard as possible. Gotou and Yuuto had formed a tag team, quickly and effectively attacking with their swords in turns to keep from getting exhausted against such a fast opponent. And Deneb, Date, J, Yui, and Airi had formed a circle and fired off shots whenever Shingo got too far from any of his opponents, effectively corralling him.

"I think I've got an idea," Shinji said as Ankh blocked another attack coming his way.

Shingo had moved Eiji's way, and after he and Hina punched him away, Eiji said, "Go ahead."

"I've got a card that can copy the next card my enemy uses," Shinji explained. "I think I can use it to copy Time Vent."

Both Ryotarou and Kohana had gotten to Shingo now, and as Kohana held him back, Ryotarou slashed with his sword.

"It sounds risky," he admitted. "But if we can all stop him long enough, we might have a shot at it. Everyone, use your hissatsu attacks!"

Ryotarou, Shinji, and Eiji backed off a little to prepare their attacks. Everyone else who had a finisher did the same, and for a moment, all anyone could hear was weapons sounding off:

[CELL BURST] from Date's Birth Buster.

[BREAST CANNON] from Kohana.

[BOOST UP FOR BUSTER] and "Come on!" from J and Airi.

[CHARGE AND UP] from Ryotarou's belt, powering up the DenGasher for Yuuto.

[SCANNING CHARGE] from Eiji.

[FINAL VENT] from Shinji.

Ankh and Hina started off the attack, purposely aiming punches toward Shingo's deck to draw his defense, opening him up to a sword strike from Gotou in front of him and bullet spray from Deneb and arrows from Yui behind him. Yuuto struck next with the DenGasher, buying enough time for the other five to clear out so Date and Kohana could let off ridiculous blasts of energy. As the smoke cleared, J and Airi continued the attack, giving enough time for the Riders to finish it off. Eiji rose into the air for a Rider Kick, Ryotarou boarded a rail of energy  with four energy trains behind him, and Shinji rode in on Dragranzer, who was transformed into a bike, blasting fireballs.

Shinji let out a wild cry, followed by Eiji shouting, "Seiya!" and Ryotarou crying out, "Densha Giri!"

All three of them slammed into Shingo at the same time, forcing him to the ground. The deck slid out of his belt, shattering his armor, and Eiji kicked it away.

"Shinji, now!" he cried.

Shinji nodded and scanned the card. [STRANGE VENT]

He'd done it just in time. The deck landed next to Peanut, who stepped on it and broke it into pieces that disintegrated into sand. Ankh abandoned Ren and moved over to the exhausted Shingo, whom Eiji was trying to help up.

"I'm sorry," Shingo insisted. Ankh didn't appear to listen and simply possessed him.

"Ankh!" Eiji shouted.

Back in his usual body, Ankh stood up, not looking at him. "Apologizing for being manipulated and losing control. Acting like it's actually your fault. Are all humans this self-centered and stupid, or just the ones I know?"

Knowing that was Ankh's way of saying he forgave Shingo, Eiji smiled. But the Visor had also disintegrated, leaving behind a strange phoenix-marked Medal, so he knelt down and picked it up. Realizing what was going on, he placed it into the TaJa Spinner on his arm and scanned it.

[GIGA SCAN]

"It's going to take all of us," he insisted.

"It took all three of our enemies to create this mess, so it'll take all three of our powers to fix it," Ryotarou said with a nod.

"Right," Shinji agreed, handing Ryotarou the card first.

Ryotarou placed the card in his Rider Pass and swiped it against his belt. [CHARGE AND UP]

Shinji then took the card and placed it in his Visor.

[TIME VENT]

Time shattered. And rebuilt itself the right way this time.

There were a couple of errors, of course—everyone was still in period dress when they found themselves in the middle of Japan in 2011, confused out of their minds. Yui, for one, was looking at the long ponytail Ren suddenly had.

"Ren, when did..." she started, but when he turned around and she saw his black eye, she asked, "How did you get that bruise? Were you fighting?"

Ren reached up to carefully touch his injury, being mindful of Eri's ring, which he'd found in his pocket instead of around his neck. "I don't know. Kido?"

Shinji transformed back and grinned at him. "Don't worry about it. We can get your hair cut somewhere, I think."

Gotou and Date looked at each other's clothes in confusion for a minute before Date asked, "Did we do some kind of favor for Chiyoko when a fight broke out?"

"See!" Deneb told Yuuto. "I swear I didn't make those clothes for you!"

"Fine," Yuuto grumbled.

"Let's go with that," Kohana said, handing Gotou the Proto-Birth driver. "Thank Satonaka for loaning that to me."

"Wait, where did this come from?" Gotou asked.

"Everything's back to normal," Eiji marveled.

"Normal from what?" Hina asked.

Ankh walked over next to them, careful not to express anything. "Except now we've got a bunch of time-lost idiots walking around."

"We'll make sure everyone gets back home where they belong," Ryotarou promised.

"Starting with this guy," Kohana insisted, dragging J away from Airi, who was blinking in confusion at his rampant egotism.

"I still do not understand humans," J admitted.

"I still have the fan," she warned. "Don't make me hit you with it all the way back."

"Ryo-chan?" Airi asked. "Are all of these people your friends?"

Shinji and Eiji stopped and turned to Ryotarou, who grinned at his sister and said, "Yes. We're not all from the same time and we may do things differently, but I'm proud to have them as my friends."

Eiji grinned and Shinji gave a happy but nervous laugh, rubbing the back of his head. Airi smiled back at her brother and said, "I'm glad to hear that. But how did you befriend an elephant?"

"Eh?"

Everyone turned to see Peanut hanging at the back of the group. Kohana looked to Yuuto, who raised his hands and said, "There's no way we can fit an elephant in the dining car!"

"I will transport her home," J volunteered.

"J, you don't even know where to take her!" Kohana insisted. "She's from the timesplosion!"

"Just leave her with one of the red idiots with a bike," Ankh snarked. "That'll be easy enough."

"Red with a bike," J said. "Hmm..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"And that's the story of how we met our elephant," Jin said, walking Kuroki to the door of his apartment.

"Wait, so..." Kuroki asked, fumbling to unlock the door.

Jin sighed and took the keys from him, unlocking the door and guiding him toward bed. "When J heard what Ankh said, he associated 'red' and 'bike' with Hiromu and Nick. Then, giving vague instructions to Deneb, he wound up unloading the elephant in the command center today. Which led to..."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

J walked into the command center, drinking an enetron can. "Elephant arrived safely. Just on schedule."

From his link to Hyperspace, the underappreciated genius heard, _"J, what the hell?! What is an elephant doing in the Command Center?"_

"I delivered the report just before you teleported me to Earth for the first time," J replied. "It's not my fault if you didn't understand."

Jin growled in aggravation. _"Just activate the avatar already—I've got to fix this before Kurorin notices!"_

J did as told, but admitted, "It would be a perfect distraction, however."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Distraction for what?" Kuroki asked.

"Oh, Yoko-chan's got a date with Ryotarou tonight, and she asked J and me to distract you and Ryuji," Jin answered flippantly. "Since nobody's sure who Koutarou's grandma is, we figured it was better to just not interfere and see what happens. But that's not important right now. What's important is you calling into work tomorrow and me getting lost. Bye!"

Before Kuroki had any time to process what Jin was saying, Jin fled from the apartment and rushed downstairs, whipping out his Morphin Blaster to make a call.

_"Sempai, what is it?"_

"Oi, Ryuji, got a favor to ask you."

_"No."_

"You didn't even hear what I'm asking!"

_"I already know it's trouble. Besides, I just heard that Yoko has the night off and the Commander went home sick—did you have anything to do with that?"_

"Maybe, but that's not important," Jin answered, and Ryuji sighed. "Look, I really need your help. I need you to scan for something recently teleported out of the Command Center."

Now, Ryuji stopped complaining and started listening. _"There's a record of the vaccine program in Nakamura's computer. Who were you teleporting?"_

"I'll explain later," Jin promised. "Right now, there's an elephant lost somewhere in the city!"

A pause. And then, _"Sempai, HOW did you lose an elephant?"_

"Well, it all started with three Kamen Riders fighting: Ryuki, Knight, and Odin..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Kamen Rider_ is the property of Ishimori Productions and Toei. _Super Sentai_ is the property of Toei, with major creator credits going to Shotaro Ishinomori and Marvel Comics. _Abarenbo Shogun_ may be the property of TV-Asahi? But Tokuda's character from the show was heavily featured in the _OOO_ movie.The elephant is apparently the property of the Energy Management Center.


End file.
